


The Clairvoyant and The Illusionist

by ARSONjST



Series: The Clairvoyant and The Illusionist [14]
Category: Dream SMP - Fandom
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Angels, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Arson, Blood and Gore, Character Revival, Gen, Gun Violence, Hybrids, Implied Kidnapping, Implied abuse, Mentioned Dream SMP Ensemble, Stabbing, Temporary Character Death, fae, graphic fighting, mind-control, other characters not mentioned in tags
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:41:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,326
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29930136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ARSONjST/pseuds/ARSONjST
Summary: Life in The Greater Dream SMP lands is fine if you're human or an overworld hybrid. As Schlatt's power begins to weigh down on some of the hybrids within the lands, a small rebellion begins to form, unbeknownst to even its members. But they won't stand for this tyranny anymore, not after countless lives are lost in petty games and rules are broken by those who should enforce them.Tubbo and Tommy have no idea what they're getting themselves into as they fall into the care of Philza and his small group of outcasts (plus the nations highest militia leader) but they certainly don't expect to learn about the secrets of a bloodline and a curse they didn't even know their training in Alchemy had exposed them to.[this is all based on their DSMP characters and not the CC's themselves, as is all of my writing.]
Series: The Clairvoyant and The Illusionist [14]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2013421
Kudos: 12





	1. Training is Fun When You Don’t Panic

**Author's Note:**

> For my TCATI followers, this is what I'm going to be doing with the series since it's all one fic and not multiple. I'm gonna keep the series intact for a month, so people can switch over, but I figured it would be easier to do this way? Also so it doesn't clog up my AO3, oops.
> 
> So, yes, these are duplicated chapters, but they've been edited to fit the plot better since I know have a solid storyline. the new chapters will start after chapter thirteen (meaning chapter fourteen is not an already posted one!)
> 
> To those just finding this series, hi, I love you (/p), thanks for checking this out :D!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy gets a taste of his new powers after some training, but Philza's not having a good time as the target of the powers.

"Let's go over the basics again, boys," Philza says, opening a book in one hand and he grabs his wooden staff, which blooms with orange blossoms, in the other. Tubbo gets up quickly, readjusting as Tommy groans before sitting up fully, "Tubbo, go easy on your one leg, Tommy, focus on your skills, not your emotions."

"Okay!" Tubbo shouted, despite being the shortest in the group, the boy was full of energy and drive. Philza smiled and began to read from his book as Tubbo swung his staff at his teacher.

"All humanoid people within this world can focus their soul energy into magic. Magic is not something most are born with the ability to control easily, the users themselves have to work long hours to hone and improve magical abilities. This part of the magic journey has been dubbed the Magical Indoctrination." Philza blocked three hits from Tubbo and kicked Tommy off to the side, both boys tumbled before restarting. Tubbo having to use his staff to stand back up, "The only exceptions to that rule are Homunculi, Elementals, Fae, Angels or Demons. They are born with different levels of magic depending on their bloodline and other variables."

Philza kicked Tommy to the side again and scowled at him, tossing his book in the air as Tubbo charged. He grabbed the youngest boy's arm and twisted him onto the ground, before lifting him and throwing him towards Tommy. The blonde panicked, attempting to catch his friend, but he stumbled and fell back under the sudden addition of Tubbo's weight. Philza wiped his hands off and turned to them, holding out one hand which perfectly caught the book he had thrown earlier, "What species are exceptions of Magic Indoctrination?"

Tommy hums in confusion and Tubbo rubs his head as he mutters, "Homunculi, Fae, Angels, Demons and..."

" _ Elementals _ !" Tommy finishes Tubbo's sentence and Philza nods, his eyes gazing at the two on the ground from underneath the brim of his hat.

"Correct, but would you have known that on your  _ own _ , boys?" Philza chucks the book as hard as he can at Wilbur, who catches it with one hand before he makes his way over to the group.

"No..." Tommy sighed, getting up before he helped his best friend to a standing position as Wilbur handed him a crutch.

"I was gonna figure it out!" Tubbo complained, "but Tommy stole it!"

The two begin to argue and Philza sighed, looking over at Wilbur who hands him the book back. Wilbur then smiles slyly at the two kids before kicking his leg out to hit Tubbo's knee, which causes the boy to collapse into the dirt below him. Philza immediately whacks the back of Wilbur's head and leans down to help Tubbo up.

" _ Wilbur! _ God, the poor kid already has problems walking with his one leg, leave him be." Philza complains, wrapping an arm under Tubbo's to keep him stable, "Cmon, that's enough fight training for today, Tubbo. You should go read and study with Niki."

"But I  _ suck _ at reading!" Tubbo complained, "the letters get all jumbled and then nothing makes sense!"

"I know, son, I know. But you have to at least try, if it gets challenging ask Niki to read it aloud, okay? Wilbur, take him Miss Nihachu, okay? And help him study,  _ don't _ bully him anymore." With a playfully angry look at Wilbur, he passes Tubbo onto the other, who simply picks him up and nestles him on his back.

"Will do, Daddio." Wilbur laughs gently and walks into the small cabin with Tubbo, who's already starting babbling about something.

"Tommy. Walk and talk, okay?" Philza simply begins to walk off, letting the leaves crunch under his feet. Tommy jogs to catch up, Philza nods back at him once he sees him in the corner of his eye. Clarifying something secretly.

"You have to start taking your studies more seriously, Tommy. Tubbo is excelling in work that should be a breeze for you, but you simply do not care enough to put in the effort to learn and to grow." The older man turns to the boy beside him and smiles, it doesn't quite reach his eyes as a normal smile would, but it gets pretty close, "there's something...  _ unique, _ about you and Tubbo. Something I can't quite place just yet. However, I know the two of you are destined for something great. Son, don't rest until you get that greatness."

"Something great about  _ me _ ? Cut me some slack." Tommy rolled his eyes, "and the only reason Tubbo is excelling is that he's a total  _ geek _ about this stuff!"

"Do  _ not _ speak ill of him," Philza warns.

"I'm telling you the truth, sir!" Tommy groans, smacking his fists against his thighs, "he just, gets this stuff. I don't understand it at all! Plus, why do I even need to study all this magic and fighting technique bullshit? I should just be able to go in and bash shit if I'm supposed to be ' _ so great _ ' or whatever."

"Tommy. You aren't as great as you think. If you actually  _ listened _ to today's lesson you'd understand why you need to study and practice--"

"--Magic Indoctrination, I fuckin' know." Tommy looks down, kicking the leaves. Philza sighs and takes a few steps to the side before vines slowly start to stretch out to Tommy, who notices and yelps while trying to kick them away.

"Hey! What the fuck!" He screeches, kicking one harshly, but it doesn't stop them. He glances over at Philza, whose eyes are glowing a pure white.

"When I trained, we did not get a warning." He said calmly, his hands pressed together, "You have to knock me down,  _ once _ , without severely injuring me. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yeah!" Tommy says and slams a fist into one of the vines, grabbing it, he focuses, and slowly but surely a staff begins to rise from what one was a vine. It keeps the look of the vine but has the sturdiness of a normal blade. He immediately begins to hastily slice at the vines and Philza scowls.

" _ Technique _ !" He shouts and charges at his pupil, who panics and raises an arm to block the attack. Philza stops mid-way and Tommy stares through his fingers as Philza doubles over and groans. He then stumbles to the side, catching his weight on a tree before his knees buckle and he grabs the sides of his head as he crashes to the floor.

"Philza!" Tommy shouts, kneeling next to him. This is a clear demeanor change, something has to be wrong. He reaches out his hands and gently nudges his teacher, trying to figure out if he was injured.

"Tommy!  _ Stop _ !" Philza yells and Tommy immediately retracts his hands. He whips his head around, looking wildly for anyone to help. But Technoblade is at work and the other three are in the cabin Tommy can no longer see.

"Philza, please, what's wrong--"

"Get  _ out _ of my  _ head _ !" Philza wails this time and lifts his head sharply, white tears pooling down his face. Tommy screams, scrambling back against the leaves. Philza cries again, this time in pure agony, and Tommy wastes no time scrambling to his feet and running as fast as he can.

"Wilbur! Niki!" He screams as he approaches the cabin, "Niki! Wilbur! Hey! Please, someone  _ help _ !"

Niki bursts open the cabin door before Tommy can even approach it, "Tommy, what's wrong? What's happened?"

"P-Philza! I don't know! I think I hurt him? Or I am? I don't know!" He begins to ramble with tears in his eyes, tugging Niki along.

"Wilbur, keep training Tubbo. I'll be back. I'm sure it's not that bad." Niki nods and turns, running alongside Tommy. When they arrive at where he’s curled against the tree Niki is stunned, not knowing what to do.

"Teacher? Sir? Philza?" Tommy says as they get closer, "are you okay..?"

"Tommy, you need to-" he's cut off by a loud groan, his whole body lurches, " _ stop _ using psionic abilities."

"I don't  _ have _ psionic abilities!" Tommy cries, a heavy blink letting the tears run down his face, "I don't have any magic!"

"There  _ is _ a magic pull coming from you Tommy..." Niki says, kneeling in front of Philza and cupping his face. She rubs her thumbs along the sides of his head and hums a melody. Philza closes his eyes and leans into her touch and after a few minutes, he blinks his eyes open. They no longer shine with white tears that weren't normal and the white glow that was seen when he charges or uses his magic. Niki turns and grabs Tommy's hands, rubbing her thumbs along his palms and humming a similar but different tune. He starts to notice a draining feeling like he's about to fall asleep. Then he crumbles to his knees and rests his head against Niki's lap.

"There... all settled." She murmurs, combing her fingers through Tommy's hair.

"Niki, you used—"

"—I know. It's fine. The mark wears off in a week." She says, looking down the path where Wilbur is walking alongside a clearly worried Tubbo.

"Is everything alright now?" Wilbur asks, looking down at Tommy who whimpers softly against Niki's skirt. Draining someone’s soul energy and the magic force causes a lot of exhaustion and pain, she can’t even begin to imagine how he feels. Tubbo moves over to him and sits down, rubbing Tommy’s shoulder.

"Yes. Tommy overexerted himself. He also didn't know about having some sort of psionic ability." Niki runs her fingers through his hair again and Tommy closes his eyes.

"Wilbur, can you help Philza back? I'll bring Tommy." She asks. Wilbur nods and kneels beside Philza, helping him to his feet.

"Here we go, Dad. Come on." Wilbur murmurs as he wraps his arm around him to help guide him back.

"Oh Tommy, what are we going to do with you..." Niki whispers.


	2. New Leg, New Beast.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tubbo gets his new leg, which means Philza needs to distract Tommy all day by running basic errands but making them take ten times longer than usual.  
> However, robbers like to try and pick off the easy ones. Or, at least, the ones that look easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The only trigger warning for this chapter is a short fight scene!
> 
> a reminder that if you enjoy my writing, come chat with me on my tumblr (aronsjst-tries-words)

It had been a few weeks since the whole accidental psionic incident. Tommy hadn't been able to trigger the magic since then but he started to pick up his studies and seemed to care about what he was learning. Tubbo had surpassed in the reading aspect of his studies because of his one leg problem, however, it would all change this morning. After a few deep conversations with Technoblade, who knew more than he let on about biomechanical engineering, Tubbo had agreed to be fitted with a mechanical leg. They had warned him of the possibilities of death, the lengthy and agonizing recovery, but he had insisted he would be perfectly fine. Hell, he even seemed eager.

"Do you have the parts, Techno?" Wilbur questioned, looking over at Tubbo who laughed and joked around with Tommy. The two seemed completely unaware of the stress this day brought, Wilbur honestly liked it that way. It made him forget about the possibility that this kid, who had shown up bleeding and beaten. Who had still smiled when Wilbur played him a song to calm him down while Techno amputated his leg, who always had tried his hardest, even without a leg, to play fight with Wilbur, that he could die.

"Yeah, the most painful part will be connecting his nerves to the electricity within the leg, He should be ready otherwise, and this leg will extend, so he won't need a new one put on every week." Techno sighs, examining the leg a bit by bending it and applying some pressure, "we need to set up the connection area and then connect the leg. Niki said she was ready to help, yes?"

"Yeah. Philza's going to take Tommy with him into the city today so we can focus on Tubbo." Wilbur looks over at Philza who makes his way across the room to them.

"Promise me you'll be careful with him. We  _ cannot _ lose him." Philza leans on Wilbur and the male smiles.

"You getting soft there, Dad?" Wilbur flicks the brim of Philza's hat and Philza shakes his head with a grin.

"I got soft the day I let you two call me that." Philza laments, "but he's only  _ sixteen _ and he's got so many more years to live. Especially after we saw his bout of divination last night... he has a lot to learn."

"He's going to survive this, Philza. Don't worry." Techno slightly rubs Philza's shoulder and he agrees, "We'll do everything we can to keep him safe."

"It's Tubbo we're talking about. The kid is so strong, and he’ll be perfectly fine by tonight. Maybe a little drowsy, but fine." Wilbur grins and Techno makes his way across the room to where Tubbo and Tommy are seated.

"Tommy, we've gotta start prep," Techno states, though his voice is deadpanned, there's a hidden layer of despair in it. Tommy goes mute before nodding.

" _ Please _ be careful, okay?" Though Tommy doesn't say that he's terrified to lose Tubbo because he's all he has left of his family, it's heavily implied through his eyes and his protective grip on Tubbo's arm.

"I promise I'll be as careful as I can." Techno smiles and Niki walks over from where she's been reading, her book is set on Tubbo's bedside and she leans down beside the bed to rustle in their little medical supplies box.

"C'mon Tommy. We've got errands to run." Philza says, reaching out for the boy. Tommy debates what to do in his head silently, before giving Tubbo one final big hug, and the two don't let go for some time. Niki turns, walking over to a window and bringing her hands to her chest, her back is facing the boys. Techno busies himself with the mechanics while blinking rapidly. Wilbur walks over to Niki and wraps an arm around her, hiding his face by pretending to look out the window too. Unlike everyone else, Philza openly weeps, showing the boys that it's okay for them to be afraid. He steps closer, ruffling Tubbos hair and pulling the boy to his chest.

"Make it through this for us all, okay?" He kneels, cupping the boy's face. Tubbo tears up and nods.

"I will, Dad." He murmurs, it's the first time Tubbo's called him that and Philza feels a pierced feeling through his heart.

"Boys, it's okay to be afraid, it's a human emotion we've all felt at some point." Philza feels his wings shift, broken on his back, he hopes his jacket is still covering them, "feel the emotion and process it, let it go and move on. We'll see you when we're back, Tubbo."

"You will. I promise." Tubbo meekly smiles and gives Tommy another hug before Tommy slips off the bed and seizes his bag by the door.

"Best of luck, you three," Philza says, taking Tommy's shoulder and guiding him out the door. No one really wants to see what comes next.

* * *

  
  


They had left at sunrise and Philza was still waiting for some sort of message saying that Tubbo had survived the surgery. Tommy had been extremely off focus today, Philza couldn't bring himself to scold the boy. He was a bit off focus today too but was able to hide it better than Tommy.

"Last stop, then we can grab something to eat and take a walk back, okay?" Philza looks over at Tommy, he nods, looking down at the letters in his hands as Philza looks over at the nearly set sun.

"I promise, I'm checking my telephone as much as possible. I haven't gotten a single transmission." For extra measures, he rechecked, but nothing showed up.

Tommy asks abruptly, "Philza, what happens if he  _ doesn't _ make it?"

" _ Tommy _ ..."

"I know the statistics, Dad-- I mean, Philza. I know what Tubbo was told. He told me he was scared." Tommy clutches the sides of his leather strapped bag, looking away with a mix of embarrassment and panic on his face.

Philza doesn't know what to say, his wings shuffle in anger that his students-- no his  _ sons _ , have to go through this pain. He wraps an arm around Tommy and sighs heavily, "Niki is there. He'll be fine, I promise. I trust Niki, Wilbur, and Techno more than everyone else with stuff like this. I have my reasons to trust them so heavily."

"I just... worry." Tommy cried and leaned into Philza partially. Before Philza could say anything his phone chirped and anxiously he yanked it out of his pocket and read the message,

_ 'Miss Nihachu: Tubbo's awake and recovering!' _

Philza could've cried he was so happy, he clutched Tommy tight and held his phone out for the boy to read. Immediately, Tommy began pulling Philza along shouting, "C'mon! C'mon! If we finish soon we can go see him sooner!"

Philza's wings flutter a bit and he forces himself to keep them shut as he runs alongside Tommy who laughs wildly as he drags his teacher along. He drops the letter in the mailbox and collects the small package assigned for them before grabbing Philza's hand and pulling him across the rocky road to the buggy station.

"A buggy to the North City park please," Philza says, handing over a few gold coins to the female driver who nods and opens the door to let them in. Tommy climbs in haphazardly and knocks his book out of his bag, luckily Phila swoops his hand down to catch it before anyone sees it. Philza gets in a lot smoother than the teenager, who's anxiously waiting.

"Now, Tommy. I know you're excited to see Tubbo, but you still have to be wary of his injuries." Philza warns, "His leg isn't going to be ready for any sort of movement yet, as it's just been attached. I know you're excited he's okay but--"

"I know, I  _ know _ ." Tommy sighs, tenderly taking his book back from Philza, "I just... I'm so  _ fucking _ happy he's okay."

" _ Language _ , Tommy." Philza leans back as he looks out the window.

"ah, sorry Dad." This time Tommy doesn't correct himself.

* * *

The ride to the park is bumpy and long. Tommy bounces his leg and chews on his lip, Philza knows he needs a pastime but he hadn't been able to focus his energy on a conversation until his heart stopped pounding in his ears.

"Toms, why don't you tell me some stories about you and Tubbo?" Philza suggests, "I still don't know a lot about you two and I've taught you for... maybe four years now?"

"Hm... okay! But there's a lot of fun stories! But... I don't wanna talk about the really important thing today, is that okay?" Tommy looks over, absentmindedly rubbing his thumb along the spine of his book.

"Of course, I'm not going to push you to say anything." Philza smiles and Tommy nods.

"Well, I think my favorite memory is from when he first arrived. My mom wanted me to get to know him, so I took him to the woods behind my house. I taught him how to climb trees, he was  _ insanely _ nimble too. He and I spent the whole day climbing up and down the trees and running through the woods. We saw deer, hummingbirds, crows, ravens, really everything out there!" Tommy smiled down at his lap, a layer of tears pricking beneath his eyes, "he found some bees, they were dehydrated and sick. He ran back to the house and got a little plate of sugar water. When I tell you the bees literally flew around him in celebration, I mean it! They bumped into him and rested on him for an hour. When they flew away finally, we made our way back and told my mom. She then started to call him Bee... though, I'd be careful calling him that now.. bad memories and all."

"Of course. I'll keep it in mind, Tommy." Philza smiles as Tommy perks up, wiping his face a bit.

"Oh! Then there was a time we visited the Government Guards for school!" The school was the code word for their original Alchemy training, "We met these three guys, one who wore a mask, one who had a bandana, and another who wore goggles. They were so cool! They all worked in the Forgone Lane, which is the area Techno works in now, I think? And they showed us some of their research... I can't remember their names but I'm sure Tubbo does! He's good at memorizing things!"

"Then there was the time we skipped classes to go watch a musical. I forget which one it was now, but it was super good! And our teacher was so mad we skipped she made us do double work!" Tommy cackled at the thought and continued to speak, moving his hands as he spoke, "Tubbo used to help my mom cook and bake everything! He's a great chef but it's hard to cook with only one leg— but maybe it'll change now that he has one! Maybe he can make you some dinner one time!"

"And we used to work in the library by my house, my aunt owns it, and she let us work there whenever we needed extra money. Tubbo was so bad at it because he has trouble identifying what letters are what and how to match them, so he'd push the cart and I would sort everything. He loved reading even if he wasn't good at it, so I'd read aloud to him a lot while he pushed the cart around the library." Tommy smiled and continued, "we also did a lot of little work around the town, we'd always save up our money to buy these little chocolates and soft sugary candies. Tubbo actually has the recipe for them still!"

"We'll have to try them sometime, yeah?" Philza ruffled his hair and opened his buggy door and stepped out, holding it open for Tommy who thanked the driver and climbed out. Philza shut the door and thanked the driver again before she rode off. Turning, Philza placed a hand on the back of Tommy's shoulders.

"Let's get walking, we can be there before sundown." Philza begins to guide the boy who's thrilled and apprehensive at the same time. As they make it into the woods Philza feels someone staring at him and his wings rustle anxiously. Tommy feels it too, as he steps closer to Philza as they walk.

" _ Go _ !" A voice screams and Philza sees someone drop down on the path in front of them. Instantly, he shoves Tommy behind him and snarls, his eyes beginning to glow. Tommy draws a symbol in the sand quickly, the symbol begins to radiate and Tommy draws out a long sand-looking blade.

"Go back from where you came, this is  _ my _ land," Philza warns, his wings rustling under his jacket. They had been agitated all day, how long had they been stalked?

"Yeah yeah, give us your coins or we'll hurt the kid." The man states, walking up towards Philza. Before Philza can grasp Tommy he hears a shriek behind him as two goons drop down and wrestle with Tommy until they disarm him and press a blade to his throat.

" _ D-Dad _ ?!" Tommy wheezes and Philza hums, tapping his foot as his eyes begin to glow brighter and brighter.

One guy, who’s masked, notices and yelps, raising a sword as he cries, "Yo! Who did we pick to mess with!?"

"Man, they seemed like an easy target!" Another goon complains, pressing the blade closer to Tommy's throat. Tommy wiggles, trying to escape but a glance from Philza makes him stall. Philza shrugs his shoulders as his jacket slips off, and he moves his long, feathery, black wings before spreading them out.

"Oh my god!" One goon yells, scrambling away from Tommy, who slams his head back and breaks from their grasp before running towards Philza.

"The  _ fae _ !" Another scream and Philza laughs.

"You should know better than to wander where you are unwelcome. Today, I'll let you off with a warning. If any of you try to harm my children again, you will face something far more  _ terrifying _ than me." His wings extend fully and he swoops down to grab his jacket, before tucking his arms beneath Tommy's to hold him, and beating his wings to draw up dust. The goons cough and scatter before Philza shoots off into the air.

"Philza! Dad! Oh my god!" Tommy shouts, he's excited, but Philza is deadpan. They fly right above the treetops for a solid ten minutes in silence before Philza dips down between two trees and sets Tommy down. Philza stumbles as he lands himself and grunts, stretching his wings out. His eyes glance towards the broken one which clicks as he holds them out fully before slowly folding them back in and pulling his jacket on.

"Tommy." He turns, looking back at the boy, "Do  _ not _ speak of that. We could be killed just for that... I'll have to get some sort of extra protection from Niki..."

"What was that? Those wings weren't part-fae... hold on, part-fae have those splotchy wings, angels have white wings, fae have black wings,—" Tommy gasps, "you're a fae!"

"Yes, Tommy. Now come on." Philza begins to walk, crossing his arms in front of him.

"Hold on, you told us you were  _ part _ fae!" Tommy jogs to catch up and Philza nods.

"Yes, because I wasn't supposed to have to show you.  _ Ever _ ." Philza grimaces, looking down.

"Why not?"

"Pure Faes are dangerous Tommy, if people are told about my wings, they'll hunt me for them. Though my wings are partially broken... they won't care. Pure Fae feathers are used in a lot of medicine, I just don't want you guys to have to see a Fae hunt... I don't want you guys to have to see the real me." Philza huffs. It's tough to tell Tommy this much but he rustles his feathers and continues until he turns to the corner to see the clearing of his cabin. Suddenly the worries about the fae situation dissolve, and they do for Tommy as well, as he begins to book it for the door. Philza chuckles to himself as he follows behind the excited child.

The door slams open and Tommy stumbles in. Philza called from behind him to slow down. 

"Christ, Tommy." Niki laughs, setting down her plates and bowls that she had just washed. Wilbur popped his head from the side room that had been dubbed the boy's room, where Tubbo was probably recovering. Tommy turned, looking over to Wilbur who turned back and spoke into the doorway for a few seconds before nodding.

"Tommy, c'mon," Wilbur says and Tommy immediately speeds towards him. Philza chuckles and takes off his jacket and hangs it up, silently signaling to Niki what had happened. She nodded towards him and rustled her wings in response. He then followed Tommy to the boy's bedroom.

"Be gentle with him, okay? He can't walk yet, he has limited movement, and Techno is still toying with it to make sure it's alright. " Wilbur says, then pushes open the door. Tommy shoved Wilbur out of the way and froze in the doorway, eyes wide.

Tubbo sat on the bed propped up against a mountain of pillows. He had a thick blue blanket wrapped around his shoulders and bundles of it around him, but instead of just seeing his normal human leg, he also had one shiny, metal leg to go with it. Techno shut a panel on the knee of the new leg as Tommy opened the door.

" _ Tommy _ !" Tubbo cheered, holding his arms out. Tommy laughed and rushed over, throwing his arms around Tubbo and holding him tight. Philza chuckled softly at the two's embrace. Wilbur awed softly as Techno just grinned. Niki popped her head in and awed before leaving the cabin with her notebook in her hand.

"Tubbo! Look at you! Look at _your_ _leg_! You're like.. like a... big man, huh!" Tommy leaned back from the hug, looking down at his friend.

Tubbo laughed, his head lolling to the side as he brought a hand to his face, "B-big man?"

"Yeah! You're like, half-robot now! A big man! Hard to beat, of course." Tommy grinned as he poked Tubbo's new leg.

"Woah... I felt that..." Tubbo murmured and Tommy lifted a hand to smack it before Techno's hand shot out and grabbed his hair, tugging him back while Tommy screeched complaints. Tubbo laughed, leaning back against his pillows.

" _ No smacking the new tech _ , I still have to mess with it before he can walk and such." Techno rolled his eyes, handing Tommy some books, "but now, you can help me. You're always beside him, so you should know how to fix and use this tech if it breaks when I'm not around."

"Yea! Okay! I'll learn! For Tubbo." Tommy grinned, following Techno over to the other side of the bed, where they kneeled next to Tubbo's new left leg. While those two worked on fixing up the tech, Wilbur aided Philza in the kitchen. The two worked on wrapping and cleaning his wings, since his right-wing was damaged he couldn't clean them himself. Niki came back in only a few minutes after, claiming that she had put protection sigils on the house. It was peaceful now, in the small cabin in the clearing of the North Woods.

But Philza had a gut feeling it definitely wouldn’t last.


	3. How Can I Call Myself a Hero Now?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The hunters finally come, and it's a bloody, gory, gross mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw this chapter for a pretty gory fight, its also just hardcore angst but this is really the worst it gets I swear.

Tubbo skidded across the ground and huffed, sitting up as Tommy cheered from where he stood, walking over to a tree and using his pocket knife to carve a line on the left side of the tree.

"Six for Tommy, four for Tubbo!" Tommy turns, grinning, "Which means I win! Best of six!"

"Best out of ten?" Tubbo chuckles as Tommy walks over to help him up.

"Maybe tomorrow, my back has been killing me since last night." Tommy cracked his back and Tubbo snickered, slugging him on the shoulder before bending down to check the panels on his leg.

"I told you sparring with Techno wasn't going to end well!" He spoke while hanging upside down, " But can you help me with this panel, I think it came loose while we were sparring."

"Yeah yeah, whatever Tubbo." Tommy kneeled to help him despite his sarcastic nature. The two popped the panel out and checked the slots for it. Tommy hummed and popped it back in with a soft hiss from Tubbo.

"How much does it hurt? Do we need to turn the sensitivity down?" Tommy looked up, panicked.

Tubbo shook his head immediately, "No, it's the usual amount. It's only a month old so my body isn't used to it yet."

"Wonderful tech.." A new voice speaks and both boys stand fully, Tubbo shoving Tommy behind him.

"Who are you..? Where are you?" Tubbo looks around, feeling a mix of anger and regret bubbling in his stomach. Tommy goes to step back into the house but suddenly the door is blocked by a man with a gun, Tubbo grabs Tommy's arm and tries to book it into the woods but armed hunters pop out behind every tree around them.

"They're Soul Hunters, look at the patch on their jackets." He whispers to Tommy who nods. Tommy drops to his hands and knees and starts to draw an alchemy symbol. Tubbo stands on guard, his hands flicking nervously as he tries to predict what they're going to do.

"Philza!" Tommy calls, glancing towards the house that looks empty suddenly, "Niki! Wilbur!"

"C'mon kid, just let us see that leg!" One hunter yells as he charges at Tubbo. Tommy stands, a newly made staff in his hand and anger in his eyes. He shoves Tubbo down to protect him, and swings at the hunter, sending him crashing to the ground. More hunters begin to rush forward and Tommy swings at them while focusing on his thoughts. He had to use some sort of psionics here and now. Suddenly a small group of men scream and collapse to their knees.

"Haha! Yes!" Tommy cheers. Tubbo ducks under a hunter's arms, hastily trying to run to the cabin but more Hunters come out of nowhere and grab him. His scream is what alerts Tommy who immediately freezes up.

"Tubbo!" Tommy screams, guttural and raw.

"Tommy! Help!" Tubbo screams, thrashing in their grip. Before Tommy can react, a guard kicks him and in the stomach and throws him against a tree nearby. He coughs and stutters, wiping at his bloody lip. The hunters are trying to pry at Tubbo's leg and he thrashes, biting, scratching, spitting, and hitting and smacking as best he can. The trees begin to morph and bend, branches curling and extending, vines dropping down and grabbing the guards, slamming them roughly against trees and holding them there. Philza steps out from the cabin, his eyes glowing a brilliant white. His jacket has been discarded and his wings puff up in agitation. Philza had never reacted so quickly, but the sight of guns drawn at Tubbo, Tommy against the tree, the hunters trying to pry open Tubbo's leg, had made him sick.

"Didn't I tell your group of goons not to mess with my sons ?" Philza snarls, using the vines to yank the rest of the hunters off of Tubbo who runs behind him to hide. Tommy slowly pulls himself off the ground but doesn't need to walk, as Philza uses some of the vines to lift him and set him behind him. Angrily, Philza turned and his wings shot out to hide the boys behind him.

"Boys. Get inside." Philza says coldly. Tommy nods and Tubbo wraps an arm under him, helping him into the house.

"Now. Let's dance, gentle-people." Philza shoots into the air. Taking a moment to collect himself. This was his burden, if they took him, culled him for his wings, so be it. But god, he was not about to let them hurt his sons.

Using the vines he lifted bodies, strung them around, and chucked them distances that would kill the average person. Lifting the leader of the group he smiles, letting a vine slowly tighten around his throat as his goons watch in horror. He blinks, feeling the warm blood hit his face like water out of a popped bottle cap and he dropped the body down onto some of the men below. Suddenly there's a piercing pain in his back, someone had shot an arrow into him, hadn't they? He had been so angry at one man, he hadn't been watching. Philza flaps his wings in agonizing pain, trying to use vines to pull the men around before more hunters show up, and one scream.

"Get his wings! They'll give us a fortune!"

Ropes are thrown at him and he manages to dodge most, but one wraps around his wounded wing and yanks down. He usually would be able to hold himself up with these ropes, but the wing buckles and pops, disconnecting at his shoulder. He screams in agony, trying to stay in the air. A bullet pierces through his arm and he screams again. Niki barrels out of the cabin and the wind quickly picks up. Philza can't stay in the air with these conditions anymore, so he crashes to the ground where hunters run towards him with swords raised. Niki screams towards them and a wall of wind sends them flying backward.

"What is she?" one of the men scream and Niki glares at them as her eyes begin to glow a similar white hue, like Philza's.

"The fae?" One yells and Niki cackles, letting her pure white wings fold out. The men scream in fear as the woman shoots into the air, using wind currents to send a few up before slamming them into the ground or tree branches.

"An angel!"

"What do we do?!"

"Get her!"

"Burn the house! Kill the boys!"

"Don't burn it down! My children are in there! My children!" Philza screams from where he lays on the ground, magic almost completely depleted. Niki panics and beats her wings to soar up high as her magic completely drains. She needs to land to recharge, but she isn't good at hand-to-hand combat.

"No! My children! Leave them alone!" He screams as one man rams a bat into his stomach.

Wilbur steps out of the house finally, his one arm is replaced with a sword that's longer than any she's seen him use in the past. Philza continues to plead for his sons' lives, Niki swoops down and knocks the final hunter away from him by slamming him into a tree before swooping back up again.

"Wilbur! Cover Philza!" She yells as she dives down and grabs two of the hunters before swooping up and dropping them from probably a hundred or so feet. She dives back down to do the same but now that they've expected the dive bomb they raise their guns and fire. Niki is struck on her stomach and she tumbles, hitting the ground. There are only around four men left, but two rush over to her with ropes and pin her to the ground by her wings. She thrashes and screams, having no energy left for magic. The hunter's ready swords to slice her wings off. Wilbur lets out an inhumane scream and runs towards them, the other two men watching aim their guns at him, and even as they continuously shoot rounds into him he doesn't flinch. He slices the two men above Niki, using one slash to send them both to the ground. They don't move.

Wilbur turns around to look at the last two, one of the guards shakes as he whispers, "What the hell are you?"

"The last thing you'll ever see." He grins and dashes forwards, killing him with one slice to his throat. The final hunter shoots wildly at Wilbur who takes each hit but doesn't flinch. He jams his blade arm forward and the man crumbles to his knees, screaming as Wilbur rips the blade out and lets him bleed. Wilbur stumbles to Philza, collapsing near his father and murmuring prayers for him to wake up. Niki stumbles over and collapses, the ropes weighing her down as she starts to sob. Wilbur wraps an arm around her before he slumps forward, landing on an unconscious Philza. Niki cries until her body gives up.

* * *

Tubbo and Tommy slammed the door to the cabin shut behind them and Niki immediately rushed forwards to pick Tommy up and carry him to the side room where Wilbur was seated on the bed. She sits Tommy down on the bed and puts her hands on her head.

"Wilbur! We need to get them out of here, they're going to die." Niki lamented, wiping at her face as she looked outside to see the vines throwing men around.

"But if we go outside we'll give ourselves away! They'll try and kill us all, Niki!" Wilbur shouts back, looking down at his hand as if he was trying to make it disappear. Tommy scoots over to Tubbo and hisses as he moves his leg. Something must be broken. Tubbo wraps an arm around him and rubs his back.

Niki grabs Wilbur’s shoulders tightly and stares him in the eyes, "We don't have a choice Will, we can't let them die like this!"

"Niki do you think you can.. y'know, with the five of us." Wilbur motions to everyone and then out the window towards Philza, Tommy looks at both with confusion in his eyes. Niki shakes her head and Wilbur looks out the window with a grimace.

"I can't with all of us, it's too dangerous even just for us to go outside, but, I can get the boys out of here. Tubbo, Tommy, grab my hands."

"Niki!" Wilbur grabs her hands and she pulls herself away from him.

"I have to Wilbur! We can survive this fight! They cannot." She looks at him with anger in her eyes and he sighs, shaking his head as he leaves the room.

"Tubbo, Tommy, I have a friend in Manburg named Eret. He lives in a big castle with Rainbow flags on it, okay? Go to him and give him this." She takes off her necklace and clips it around Tubbo's neck, "He'll know what it means."

She holds her hands out to the boys and they take them before she closes her eyes. Slowly a light begins to form around her before two big, glowing, white wings fold out from behind her back. They stretch out partially and a vertigo feeling washes over Tommy. Tubbo already has his eyes closed so Tommy just follows his lead. The vertigo feeling grows extremely, to the point where Tommy isn't sure what direction he's facing or if he's laying down or sitting up anymore. By the time vertigo wears off and he blinks his eyes open he’s no longer in the cabin.

"Niki?" He squeezes where her hand was and there's nothing there. He looks over towards where she should be but she's gone. Panicked, he immediately turns towards where Tubbo had been sitting, to see him slowly getting up to a seated position.

"She..." Tubbo trails off.

"She teleported us..." Tommy blinks, trying to readjust his eyes to the outside light.

"Did you see her wings?!" Tubbo shouts, standing up, steadying himself before he starts looking around. Tommy stood shortly after, cracking his back as he looked around too.

"Angel wings. Pure white." He said, before looking back at Tubbo.

"Come on, let's walk down the path and see where we end up." Tubbo steps onto a wooden boardwalk and waits for Tommy, with a burning sensation in his leg he manages to climb up but after a few steps, he stops.

“I screwed up my knee or something, I can barely walk,” Tommy says some colorful words under his breath as he tries to put weight on it but feels a searing pain shoot through his leg.

“See having a metal--”

“Shut up and help me, Tubbo.” Tommy smacks his head and Tubbo laughs shortly, wrapping an arm under Tommy’s shoulders and walking alongside him. They end up going through a tunnel and down some stairs, walking along with some very big buildings in Manburg. They’d only been to this central city as children so it’s odd to see it again. 

Citizens and traders pay no mind to the very clearly out of town, injured, panicking children. Tubbo makes it to midtown, pulling Tommy off to the side of the path as he tries to find some sort of map or some directions. Suddenly Tommy turns and grabs something, scowling.

“Excuse me, I’d rather not have my bag stolen.” he snaps and the man puts his hands up.

“Alright alright, sorry.” The guy steps in front of them and extends a friendly hand, “The name’s Fundy.”

“Fundy? Well, It’s nice to meet you. I’m Tubbo, and that’s Tommy.” Tubbo notices his fox-looking ears perk out from the sides of a black cap. They swivel slightly as his yellow eyes peer into Tubbo’s blue ones.

“You two are from outta town aren’t ya? Whatcha lookin’ round for?” Fundy asks with a gentle smile.

“The castle with the rainbow flags, we have a friend we need to meet there,” Tommy says simply, and Fundy nods.

“Well! Go up those stairs and walk down the long path, don’t turn at all, just go straight. You literally can’t miss it.” He grins, “Welp, I’ve gotta head out, may the old king bless you!”

“The old king?” But before Tubbo can get the words out, Fundy’s gone.

“Huh… let’s just go.”

* * *

Fundy was right, it was nearly impossible to miss the castle. It was huge. The windows held these huge rainbow flags that made Tommy blink to focus on. They were so bright, he wondered how they even dyed the fabric that color.

“Halt, who are you?” A male says, stopping his horse in front of the two. He’s wearing mostly black, with a white Government Guard uniform shirt and a bandana on.

“Uh, I’m Tubbo and that’s Tommy. We came here to meet Eret?” Tommy holds up the necklace and the guard leans down to look at it. He hums and nods.

“Dream, George, let me escort them in before we go meet up with the Chief, right?” The male on the horse says, Tubbo turns back to see two other men on horses. One with a white mask on his face wearing a green uniform shirt and black pants, the other wears a blue uniform shirt and jeans.

“Alright, Sap. Just don’t take forever.” The guy in the blue shirt chuckles.

‘Sap’ rolls his eyes and turns back to the two younger boys as he slips off his horse, “The name’s Sapnap. I’m a colonel with the Manburg Guards. Eret’s one of the main rulers of Manburg.” Subpoena begins to walk into the castle.

“It’s nice to meet you Sir Sapnap,” Tubbo says.

“Oh, you guys can just call me Sapnap, it’s not a big deal.” He grins as they begin to go up a flight of stairs. Sitting on a throne is a tall man, whose hands are folded as his head rests on them.

“My liege.” Sapnap kneels, dipping his head, before standing again, “two boys are here, asking for you.”

Eret nods and sits up fully, opening his eyes. They’re empty white, with no pupil or iris. Streaking down his face are white tears but he doesn’t look like he’s in pain, just a load of distress, “Sapnap,” he says, “You’re going to meet with your Chief in command, correct?”

“Yes, my liege.” Sapnap nods and Eret sighs.

“Godspeed, go.” Eret stands and even Tommy, who shocked Philza when he grew taller than him, seems small. Sapnap bows and quickly exits the room, running down the stairs.

“What may I help you with?” Eret walks over, his heeled black boots clicking on the tile. Tubbo holds out the necklace and the taller male leans over to inspect it. He nods sadly and runs a hand through his hair, looking around the room.

"I'm glad you two made it here safely. Niki must be in real distress if she had to teleport you two. Alright, c'mon. Let's get you guys some food, new clothes, and beds, yes?" Eret begins to walk off and the two boys limp after him.

* * *

Technoblade yanked on his horse's reins as soon as he saw the first body and the horse skidded to a stop, puffing at him. Huffing heavily, his tusks rubbing against his top lip, he continued. He could see vines slowly disintegrating and the trees squeaked as they shifted back to their natural state. Philza had definitely done some sort of spell work here.

“Sapnap, George, Dream, do a run check in the woods. Make sure no more hunters are here.” Techno orders, guiding his horse into a canter up the path. The three men behind him split off as told and let their horses gallop around the small paths in the forest.

“Philza? Wilbur? Niki?” Technoblade calls as he rides up to the house. Once in the clearing, his eyes finally focus on the massacre in front of him. Bodies strung on trees, hanging from vines, bloody and beaten on the floor. Some have been bashed, others sliced, others thrown, and made into kabobs. He noticed they’re all hunters and he hums lowly. His eyes gaze across the floor before he spots three familiar outfits, he immediately stops his horse and drops off as quickly as he can. His boots hurriedly slam against the dirt as he drops down next to Philza and shakes him.

“Philza? Dad?” He whispers, nudging him again. The teacher's shoulder rolls with every shake and he can hear something pop. He doesn’t even want to try and source where the cuts causing the pools of blood are from. When he gets no response from Phila, he tries Niki, who doesn’t even look like she’s breathing. She’s not in a much better state, though she clearly has fewer injuries. Techno assumes she passed out from lack of magic energy, as her angelic form has completely dropped. Not even her wings remain. When she only grunts as a reply, and he can’t get her to speak, he tries Wilbur. He’s the least injured, but his shirt is completely bloodied and torn with hundreds of bullet holes. He must’ve regenerated himself, Techno thinks, as he shakes Wilbur until the male groans, blinking his eyes open partially.

“Wilbur, where are the boys?” Techno asks immediately, not even waiting for Wilbur to wake up.

“Niki teleported… to Eret…” he wheezes. Techno nods and shifts him and Niki away from Philza. He needs to be put inside first, to hide his wings. He lifts him bridal style and uses a foot to open the cabin door. He stumbles in and sets Philza on the couch, grabbing his jacket off the hook and wrapping it around his back to hide the wings. As he walks back out he sees his three mentees ride up the path.

“Dream and George, grab the boy in the yellow sweater, Sapnap, help me with the woman.” Techno walks back over to where the three lay and grabs onto Niki’s arm to sit her up. She blinks and murmurs as Sapnap hoists her up. Glancing to his side as he lifts Niki’s arm around his shoulder he sees George and Dream balance a clearly unstable Wilbur between them. They lay Niki on the second couch in the cabin and lay Wilbur on the floor with some blankets and pillows from the boy's room.

“Stay on guard outside, I need to make a call.” Techno nods to his mentees who follow his order and leave the room. The chief sighs and hangs his blue cape up, pulling out his phone and dialing a number. He pauses and clicks his tongue before grinning as the call is answered, 

“Fundy. I need your help at the cabin.”


	4. White Eyes of Familiarity Vanish with a Shock

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tubbo can’t fall asleep so he reminisces, first alone, with a new friend, and then alone again.
> 
> He really really misses home, he misses Philza, he misses Wilbur, he misses Techno, he misses Niki.  
> He misses himself, too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw in this chapter for implied kidnapping!

There was a chill in the air that made the younger boy shiver. He tugged the blankets closer to himself as he cracked his eyes open. The fire that had been made to help heat the house was now gone, he huffs and lets his bare feet touch the almost icy wooden floors. Philza had told him to wear socks while outside sparring, he hadn't listened, and now he was stuck with no socks.

He shakes his head and gets up, grabbing the blanket off his bed and wrapping it around himself as he flicks on a small hand-held lamp. He walks over to where the extra logs should be but when he pulls back the cover to grab some, there's nothing there. Huffing he sets the cover and the lamp down and looks back. Tommy is sprawled across his bed, snoring mutely with his mouth open. He wasn’t going to fall asleep without taking a quick walk around, so Tubbo walked out of his room and stumbled into the expansive halls. Yawning, he held the long blanket around himself he walked up a window. The frost on the outside of the window made it easier for him to see his own reflection and as he paused in the hall, black pants, a white shirt, and a blue blanket draped over his shoulders...

_He looked like Technoblade._

He can't stop staring until he hears soft humming travel down the halls. The voice is deep and reminds him of the aforementioned brother. He immediately takes off towards the noise, letting his bare feet rub against the soft red carpet. Glancing down the halls at every intersection he eventually makes his way onto a balcony where he sees Eret standing. Tubbo's eyes widen at the sight of two beautiful white wings glistening in the pale moonlight. Eret hums a song softly, gazing up at the sky with hazy eyes.

"Woah..." He whispers, stepping a bit closer.

Eret whips around suddenly, yanking his wings closed before he notices the teenager looking up at him. He breathes in as he exclaims, "T-Tubbo!"

"Liege... you have very pretty wings." Tubbo whispers, "Tommy told me it's dangerous to show wings, so don't worry, I won't tell."

Eret sighs as he blinks and looks away, taking off his sunglasses and rubbing them on his shirt, "why are you still awake, Tubbo?"

"I was cold... and I couldn't fall asleep." Tubbo shrugs, sitting down on the balcony's floor. Eret sighs and tucks his wings in before he sits down next to Tubbo and looks at him with glowing white eyes.

"I couldn't either," Eret admits, looking away at the moon and the stars. His eyes glow a pale white color Tubbo knows all too well. He looks over curiously and Eret senses the younger boy staring at him. He glances over with a curious look and Tubbo looks away, cheeks red from being caught staring.

“I… Philza’s eyes glowed white when he used magic, so did Niki’s. Are you using magic right now, King Eret?” The boy shuffles his legs closer to himself to stay warm, out of instinct Eret moves his wing to wrap around the young boy and pulls him closer to himself.

“Yeah, I have a magical link as her guard and I can, uhm. I can feel her pain and help her heal. She’s hurt right now, I’m sure you could infer that, so I have to help her heal. I have to stay awake while I do it though. Which is why I’m still awake so late.” Eret looks away from Tubbo, back out towards the city he loves, and rules over gently.

“I can sit with you so it’s not so lonely, King Eret,” Tubbo says, yawning as the warm wing cocoons him and reminds him of late nights on the couch watching movies with Philza. It almost brings tears to his eyes, but he blinks them away.

“Sure kiddo.” Eret grins, leaning back and continuing to hum the same song in a low tone that lulls the younger boy to sleep in only a few warm minutes.

* * *

The azaleas felt softer than any blanket Eret had given him in the past six months living in this castle. Though it was rare for Eret to let the boys outside, Tubbo enjoyed following the bees from flower to flower and feeling the sweet-smelling winds drift across him as he lays in the still dewy grass. His eyes close against the sun, leaving him seeing a comforting shade of red.

Living with Eret had been fun, it had been stressless. Eret had a maid who would wake the boys at exactly 5 am sharp. The schedule was so consistent that Tubbo could wake up before the cinnamon smelling woman shook his shoulder with a soft ‘good morning, dear.’ At 6 am, the boys would be dressed and ready to eat breakfast. Tubbo and Tommy always sat in two chairs across from the windows so they could look out and admire the beautiful sunrises. By 8 am they had to be in the library so they could do schoolwork until noon. Then, Eret would let them relax until 3 pm, which is when they’d spar. The sparring times always varied, sometimes it would be until dinner, sometimes they worked through dinner. They learned all different types of fighting and they worked as hard as they could because they wanted to be perfect. 

Eret always promised as soon as they were perfect, they’d get to go home.

_They wanted to be perfect._

Though, it always hurt waking up in the mornings without hearing a slow lull from a handmade mahogany guitar. They never got to sleep in past five or smell the eggs as they scrambled, or the sausage as it sizzled in the pan. They woke up to cinnamon instead of pine sap and honey, a hand from a small woman instead of a hand from a tall man. They sparred with knights in training instead of their brothers and father.

It hurt Tommy the most, he had connected to Wilbur and Techno much faster than Tubbo had. Tubbo still missed them just as much, and he’d admit it while Tommy wouldn’t. Tubbo knew Tommy missed them, but he never said anything because he didn’t like to talk about it.

A new thing with living in the castle had been the restrictions. They weren’t allowed to tell anyone their real names, or ages. They weren’t allowed outside unless Eret said they could, and whenever the man with the blue beanie and the guy with the ram horns came, they had to hide. Tubbo didn’t mind all the new rules, because they kept the ones from Philza too, like not chewing with your mouth open, asking to be excused from the table, always helping clean up after you eat, and cleaning up after themselves even when they really didn’t want to.

The past six months had been an odd mix of pain and joy, misery and excitement, longing and belonging.

Tubbo could feel something small land on his nose, opening his eyes he saw a baby bumblebee resting on him. He grins and shut his eyes again. These gardens had been his escape from a world that hurt, a world that stole parents and siblings not once, but twice. A world that Tubbo was sure hated him.

There was a rustle behind him, a noise that Tubbo would usually excuse to being Fundy, the thief they had met their first day in the town, who was now forced to work under Eret as punishment for his small crimes. The fox-boy was always trying to sneak up on him. But when the bee flew away and the sun disappeared, he creaked open his eyes to see something he wasn’t expecting. A white mask with a crudely painted smiley face, Tubbo screamed in shock, sitting up and crawling to his feet before turning back to face the newcomer. As he raked his brain for who it could be, he recognized the mask as being from one of the guards they had met on the first day they’d stepped within the castle's walls. The newcomer wore a state uniform, no longer wearing the guards uniform. As Tubbo’s eyes glanced down the blue uniform he was so used to seeing on his pink-haired brother, his muscles locked up and his breath seized. He collapsed to the ground gasping for air as he felt a pain much greater than anything he’d ever felt. The lack of oxygen made it impossible to scream as the masked man grabbed him and tossed him over his shoulder. Tubbo’s eyes focused on a red bandana left behind on the grass, it was one Tommy had given him when he first moved into his house. He just prayed Tommy would come by before the bandana was stolen by a certain fox. 

* * *

Tommy knew Tubbo would never miss sparring, he loved to go back and forth with Tommy as the two battled over who was the better fighter. So when Tubbo didn’t show, he was reasonably worried. He ran through the expansive gardens as it started to drizzle, assuming his friend had fallen asleep while laying in the grass. But his eyes froze at the sight of the red bandana, and he instinctively grabbed the green one he had tied to the belt loop of his jeans. He dropped down and grabbed it, rubbing his hands along the edges that were black from being singed. He heard footsteps behind him and that's when Tommy could feel the mud soaking into his jeans.

“Tommy, what's wrong?” Eret’s deep voice spoke, kneeling next to the boy, His white eyes focused on the bandana and he let out a soft breath, turning to a guard who was behind the two.

“Send out a search party, now. I don’t care who you have to grab, find him!” Eret shouts, his voice booming and echoing across the field and he grabbed Tommy and yanked him to his feet and inside the castle.

Tommy stayed awake all night, his hands rubbing the red fabric as he sat in silence. Eret would never admit how much it hurt to see the usually lively boy so silent. At ten in the morning, the following day, the head guard declared Tubbo missing.

And every single person who worked for the state knew, even a missing brother, who fought with the power of thousands of gods, who bit his lip and tugged his tusked mask down to hide the tears on his face.


	5. My Sons, Oh, They'll Never Know My Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Philza misses his sons terribly, and Techno doesn’t help the pain that swells in his heart with news as cold as the night's breeze.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> small tw for referenced kidnapping !

The gray wings on his back shuffled uncomfortably, he adjusted his green overshirt and huffed. Philza hadn’t flown in months, and now, being so close to the city, it was dangerous to even try. Niki had suggested moving out of the cabin two days after Philza woke, but the past four months had been for healing. Two months ago they’d moved here. Now, six months later, Philza could stand and run on his own. He and Wilbur sparred regularly now, and Techno and Niki went into the city often for food and supplies.

Philza flexed his hand, the light magic in his hand forming a small ball. He sighed and let it go. He hadn’t been able to do any major magic since the battle, he’d completely drained himself. He hadn’t woken up for so long because of the magic drain, and after he had woken, he was so broken he couldn’t move. It didn’t matter how many potions Techno bought, how many times Wilbur reset his wing, or how many spells Niki did. He was a wasted space for six months, and now, he could barely function. One of the last surviving fae in this area, a man who swore to protect those around him. He couldn’t even fight off a cold.

“Philza, come inside,” Niki said, cracking open the door. He could feel the warmth and smell the cinnamon rolls she was making.

“It’s nice out Niki.” Philza’s voice was void. Niki couldn’t think of the last time she’d heard him scold someone, or laugh at a joke, or hum along to a song Wilbur played.

“It’s freezing.” She shuts the door and looks over at Philza.

“I can feel it now, Niki. In my hands, on my wings..” he hadn’t been able to feel it before, it was almost euphoric. 

“Philza. You have to come inside, you’re going to freeze.” Niki grabs his wrist and tugs him back.

“P-philza! You’re ice cold. Come on, Wilbur’s going to kill me.” Niki grumbles, opening the door and pulling the grown male in. He’s guided to a seat on the couch and he sighs softly.

“Now, stay here, and I’m gonna make your dinner and your dessert. Because I’m that good.” Niki winks and walks off into the kitchen, her pastel blue apron swaying. Philza doesn’t have it in him to be upset with her for forcing him inside. He can feel the warmth from the fire sink into his skin and he closes his eyes, letting himself sink into the couch.

There was a creaking of the stairs as Wilbur walked up from the basement. He set his guitar by the couch and put a hand against Philza’s cheek and then hugged the blonde male.

“You’re icy, dad,” Wilbur murmurs, taking off his long coat and wrapping it around Philza’s cheek and shoulders.

“I was outside, son.” Philza murmurs and Wilbur clicks his tongue.

“For too long,” Niki adds, setting down four bowls of rabbit stew. Wilbur grins and goes to grab a bowl before Niki smacks his hands awake and laughs, “Wil, wait for Techno. He should be home soon—“

She’s cut off by a chill as a cold breeze runs through the room, she turns and watches as Techno shuts the door behind him. Shaking the snow off his hair, he hung his coat up and gave a gentle smile to the family he had adopted inside the room.

He scans the room with tired eyes, happy no one in the room can see the tears on his cheeks. He hates how they leave salty trails against his skin, but he can’t exactly wipe them away yet, “Ah, dinner already? It seems I’ve shown up at the right time.”

“Yeah! I’ve just set the table, come on, sit and get warm!” She smiles, waving him in. The soldier nods and takes a seat next to her on the second couch. Out of the three couches in the room, the right one with a red jacket and a green hoodie tossed over it is the only one empty. The middle one sits Philza and Techno, and the third sits Niki and Wilbur.

Philza takes a sip of the broth in his soup and hums a soft thank you to Niki as he begins to properly eat it. Wilbur’s hunched over, already digging in, not even blowing on the steaming food to cool it. Niki is much slower, taking her time with crossed ankles and perfect posture. Techno sits, holding the bowl in one hand and staring down at it. He’d moved his mask up to expose his mouth, but hadn’t touched his food.

“Techno, eat up, so it doesn’t get cold,” Philza speaks softly, even though he’s really in no position to be worried about his son's health when his own is so fragile… he still cares.

“Ah, sorry. Just thinking about today.” Techno replies, taking a now lukewarm dish to his lips and tilting it back to taste just a smudge of the broth. He hums happily and takes his spoon to dip in to grab some food.

“How was work today, Techno?” Niki asks gently, setting her half-empty bowl aside to lean forward and cut the bread she’d prepared now that she could touch it without burning herself.

“Tommy was sparring with Fundy today in Eret’s castle.” Techno grins a bit, “he knocked the fox down in two hits. He’s grown a lot too, probably rivals Wilbur’s height by now.”

“My God, the ginger thief? In two hits?” Niki gasps, “that’s incredible! It took the State years to catch him.”

“Fundy doesn’t go easy with sparring either. I know that” Wilbur chuckles, “he was one of the best in my battalions.”

“I always forget you were a general, Wil.” Philza chuckles, “you never act like the boy I remember leading his people to safety.”

“I wish I was still that young boy.” Wilbur sighs, “but sadly, the days of L’Manburg are no more.”

“How about Tubbo?” Niki asks and Techno stills.

“Ah. I didn’t see him today. But I heard something I’d like to wait until after dinner to discuss.” Techno sets his empty bowl down as Niki hands out some pieces of bread. Always leaving two extra pieces as if the teenagers are going to grab them and fight over who’s is better.

The family finishes their meal in mostly silence, and Niki and Philza retreat to the kitchen to do the dishes while Wilbur begins to strum a melancholy tune, his voice singing, “ _They'll burn down your towers before helping you_.”

Techno went outside to get firewood, taking a wheelbarrow and a few trips to fill the metal ring for firewood that rested in the back left corner of the main room, next to the fireplace. He added some leaves and wood to the nearly empty fireplace.

Slowly they all end up together in the living room again, Techno turns, feeling the warm glow of the fire spread from his face to his back as he stands and looks around.

“Techno, what was the news with Tubbo?” Wilbur asks, continuing to strum to the slow tune of his song.

Techno sighs, reaching a hand up to his mask as his shoulders tense. He blinked and let the last bit of tears fall before sliding his mask all the way off his head. His eyes stared, one yellow and one white, directly forward. Not exactly at anyone, or at anything. He blinked a few times as his eyes focused on everyone’s shocked faces. They knew Techno never, ever, took off his mask.

“Technoblade?” Philza goes to stand and Techno shakes his head, motioning for his pseudo father to take a seat. He sighs, letting his hand run across the scar across his eye before he looks up and speaks in the flattest, the most professional voice he can manage. Though it’s hard to not tear up at the thought, 

“Tubbo is no longer with Eret. He has been taken by Schlatt.”

“N-no!” Niki shouts, tears forming on her face. Wilbur’s guitar makes an odd noise as he strums down hard in shock and fear. He stares, waiting for Techno to laugh and say he’s joking, but when the moment passes he starts to murmur something.

“Techno… Technoblade. Please.” Philza whispers, his eyes glancing towards the green hoodie.

“I’m working on getting intel into what he’s doing with him. I have no further information.” Techno slides his mask back up and Niki lets out a guttural sob. Wilbur is quick to wrap an arm around her and hide his face by murmuring soft comforts to her.

“Technoblade,” Philza says softly and Techno walks over, kneeling in front of Philza and bowing his head. Philza snakes a shaking hand up to slip off the mask and grabs Techno’s chin, lifting his face so they make eye contact.

“Get my son back, Techno.” He whispers, staring into his eldest son's eyes with such intensity that Techno swears he can see the ruthless army general and commander’s spirit ignite in his eyes.

“I will not stop until they are both back in your arms.” Techno crosses his heart and takes Philza’s hands, holding them tightly, “I swear on my honor as the General of the Northern Wing. I swear on my honor as your eldest son. I swear upon my blood, and my deity, Sanguia, that they will return to you.”

"That is all I could ask for."


	6. The New Member of The Schlatt Administration

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone had said the president was kind… Why didn’t he seem so kind behind The White House walls?

There was a soft creak as the child sat up, his messy hair swinging over his eyes and making him blink and swat away the dirt that had filled it.

“God, when did I get a shower last..? Philza’s gonna be pissed… oh... wait,” He murmurs, running a hand through his greasy-sandy hair in an attempt to style it. He looked down at his clothes and he was still wearing the little school uniform his maid had sewn just for him even though it was covered in mud. He threw the blankets off himself and felt the cool air wrap around him like a blanket and he shivered slightly. He wasn’t in a room he recognized, and his memories of what he had been doing before he woke up were pretty fuzzy.

He went to stand, wanting to investigate what was going on, when his robotic leg buckled and popped. He gasped and shot his hands out behind him, catching himself on the bed. After his attempt at standing, his head pounded as black danced on the edges of his eyes, and his throat burned like he was sick as all the memories from the garden and the masked man came back. He yanked up his pant leg and saw a few of the panels had been dislodged, most likely during his trip here, he hummed and nodded, grabbing the top of the leg and twisting it and moving it along the intricate inner puzzle to unlock it.

“Good morning— oh my god, your leg—!” A new voice spoke and Tubbo looked over.

“Oh, hold on.” He said softly, moving the panels back into their original spots, checking the inner wiring, and then sliding the leg back on. He had no idea who this new guy was, and even if he was a threat Tubbo was in no condition to fight him off.

“What the fuck—kid, what the fuck.” The guy said, and Tubbo assumed he was docile. Tubbo held a hand up to quiet him before he stood and popped the leg in the rest of the way. He hissed slightly, the pain being significantly duller than when he first got it, but it still hurt.

“Now that I’m done with that…” Tubbo shook his pant leg back down and then turned to the beanie-wearing guy in the doorway, “hello, I’m Tubbo!”

“Uh… oh, I’m Quackity…?” He sticks out a hand awkwardly, and tilts his head, “I didn’t expect for you to be awake, and certainly didn’t expect that leg…?”

“Well, I didn’t expect to wake up here and not in the field so I guess we’re even.” Tubbo shrugs, “so uh… what’s that?” 

Quackity looks down at the items in his hands and then back up at Tubbo before speaking, “Hm? Oh, this is a suit. President Schlatt wants you to wear this.”

“Oh, okay!” Tubbo nods and Quackity sets the suit down.

"Uh… I’ll leave you to get changed then. I’ll be outside when you’re done, just step out.” Quackity then leaves the room with a soft mutter and the door latches shut. Tubbo looks down at the suit and shrugs, he’ll poke around the room and see what else he can find.  
About twenty minutes later, Tubbo thinks he has the thing on right… he’d seen Techno wearing suits for his interviews at work, but he’d never worn one of his own. He knew you tucked the undershirt in, and then wore the vest over top, but was he supposed to button the overcoat or leave it open? And why did they give him such an oddly shaped bandana? The shoes were a bit big, so he rolled his socks down so they fit better, and he had to cuff the pants a bit so they didn’t drag.

It didn’t fit him…

He wished Philza was here to show him what to do, even Wilbur or Techno, they’d know what to do or what to say. He feels so odd just standing here in this suit that just doesn’t fit.

“Quackity..?” Tubbo called as he nudged the door open with his foot. He blinked and noticed that Quackity wasn’t in the hallway, or anywhere he could see. Tubbo stepped into the hallways and clicked his door shut. He gently walked down the hallways, hearing voices down the hallway. He begins to walk a bit quicker, admiring the tall white walls that are prettier than any place he’s seen before. Eret’s castle comes close, but the castle wasn’t as clean as this place is. He let his shoes rub across the dark brown carpets until the faint voices he had heard get closer and louder.

“You said he wasn’t related to anyone.” He hears a deep voice say, and he pokes his head out from behind the door to see a man with brown hair, curly tufts of white sprinkled throughout. Two yellowish ram horns stick out on either side of his head and curl around a set of white goat ears. The new man stood next to Quackity and the masked man who had brought Tubbo here.

“I thought he wasn’t, and then word got to General Blade about the missing boy. He told everyone in his battalion to keep an eye out for him.” The masked man says, the emotionless black smile staring forward at Schlatt and Quackity, “You would be best hiding his face.”  
General Blade? Did that mean Techno? Was his pseudo brother here? Could he go home with him?

“The kid has a good amount of magic. We can manipulate it and he’d be a perfect person for our cause.” The ram-horned man says, his eyes glancing around the room before they settle on Tubbo.

“Ah, and he’s fully dressed… well, kinda.” The man waves Tubbo in and he walks in, trying his hardest not to slip on the long pants, looking over him, “A little hem on the pants and… kid, do you not know how to tie a tie?” 

“A tie..? Well, I did tie it…” he motions to the makeshift bandana he tried to make by tying it to his neck.

“No kid— fuck, okay c’mere.” The tan horned man grabs Tubbo’s collar and yanks him over, gently undoing the tie on his neck and lifting the collar. He wraps the green tie fabric around Tubbo’s neck, under the collar, and holds the two sides. He nods and gently loops the fabric around itself and slips it through a small gap before gently nudging the now properly tied fabric into the correct spot.

“There. Pull this to loosen, and this to tighten.” He demonstrates before he fixes it up fully and fixes Tubbo’s collar and jacket, “alright?”

“Thank you, uhm…” Tubbo trails off, not knowing his name.

“It’s no problem kid, I’m President Schlatt, that’s Vice President Quackity, and that’s Sargeant Dream.” Quackity motions to them all. Tubbo nods and waves meekly, refusing to look at Dream.

“Anyway, we have lots to do! Yes? Yes, go on your way, Sargeant. Tell your General I said hello.” Schlatt nods to Dream who bows before turning and leaving down the same hall Tubbo had been in. 

“Now, Quackity, why don’t you show Tubbo around? I have a meeting with a certain advisor from the Southern Badlands.” Schlatt grins, showing off a set of fangs, before walking away down a hallway. Quackity nods and looks at Tubbo before humming,

“Let’s take you to the tailors first…”

* * *

Tommy rolls to his side, using the wall to brace as Fundy charges at him. Slamming his hand down against the dirt a staff begins to form and he pushes off the wall and sticks the staff up. Fundy dodges it but hits the wall, giving Tommy time to rise to his feet again. He blocked three hits from the thief and then stabbed his staff in the ground to make a stable pole for him to use to balance on as he jumped up and kicked Fundy in the chest, knocking him down.

“Finished!” Eret calls giving a soft clap, “incredible work Tommy.”

“Thank you, sir!” Tommy grins, wiping the dirt off his face. Eret looks over towards a rustling of two horseback riders stopping nearby. Fundy pushes Tommy behind him but keeps a firm hold on Tommy’s jacket.

“General, Sargeant!” Eret clasps his hands together, walking over to the two of them with a grin. Fundy and Tommy stay still, Fundy’s eyes staring forward at the newcomers with a level of hostility that was rare to see in the man. His fist balled in red fabric, keeping Tommy hidden behind him.

“My Liege.” One of them dips his head, and Eret dips his head back as the two dismount their horses and hand them to the cinnamon smelling maid who’d just walked up.  
“What do you need gentlemen, I was just doing some training with my… assistants.” Eret looks back at Fundy and nods, and the fox lets go of Tommy’s jacket. Tommy steps out from behind Fundy and tenses up, tears pricking in his eyes as he recognizes the familiar pink hair.

“President Schlatt just met with the King from the Badlands area and expressed his desire to host a festival. All who live within Manburg have been invited and requested to help set up. You will be paid financially for assisting.” The Sergeant says, his eyes still from underneath his white mask. Tommy creeps closer, his eyes narrowing as he squints, trying to make sure he isn’t being deceived.

“Ah, yes. I will gladly help.” Eret nods, “I’m sure my servants and assistants would love a day off to assist our great nation.”

“Techno..?” Tommy whispers, setting his hand in the back of Eret’s cape and slowly curling his fingers in the fabric just in case something happens and he needs to have a hold on the king.

“Tommy…” Techno murmurs, his professionalism dropping as he laughs softly, a smile peeking at the edges of his lips as he lets out a relieved breath and shouts, “Tommy!”  
The blonde then lets go of Eret and runs over, wrapping his arms around his brother and nuzzling his face into his shoulder to hide the salty tears that roll down his face. Techno dips his head and squeezes his younger brother tightly as if he’s afraid to let go of him. The two drown out the world around them, the only thing that matters to them now is right in their arms. 

Eret grins softly and Dream looks away, trying to hide the shake of his shoulders and the tremble of his hands. He had been so stupid, so blind. He hadn’t known and yet he knew everything. Dream could feel the pit in his stomach grow a bit heavier as he looked back just in time to see Techno wiping tears from his brother's face, whispering something about going home. 

“Tommy I.. god I’m so sorry.” Techno pulls the blonde back to his chest, running a hand through his hair, “I couldn’t make it in time. I couldn’t stop them.”

“It’s okay, Techno.” Tommy mumbled into his brother's uniform, “we didn’t expect them. We didn’t even have time to send you a message.”

Techno pressed his younger brother's hair down and sighed, sitting back fully to look Tommy in the eyes, “I had heard there were hunters in the area, I should’ve messaged you guys and told you to stay in. I knew something was gonna go wrong.”

“It’s okay, I promise. I’m okay, Tubbo’s—“ Tommy looks back like the boy is going to be beside him like he has been every other day for the past seven years, but he stalls when he remembers.

“Tommy,” Techno says stepping back and kneeling before his younger brother, something that shocks everyone in the area. Guards don’t kneel to just anyone, kneeling before someone is sacred, this has to be serious.

“Technoblade?” Tommy asks, his head tilting in curiosity.

“I swear on my honor as the General of the Northern Wing. I swear on my honor as your eldest brother. I swear upon my blood, and my deity, Sanguia, that I will find Tubbo. I will bring you both home, and I swear, whoever took him… they’ll know not to mess with our family again.”

Dream takes a breath, looking away, and crossing his arms.

Eret places a hand on Tommy’s back, nudging him to reply. The teen gasps and bows his head back to his brother, “that is all I could ask you for, Techno.”

The elder brother stands and grins, ruffling his brother's hair, Tommy sticks his tongue out and tries to fix it up again. Techno turns to Eret and nods to him, 

“Thank you for keeping him safe, My Liege.” He grips his brother's shoulder, “I’ll come by tonight, after I’m done with my battalions testing, to bring him home for the night. And I’ll bring him back tomorrow morning.”

“Wait what? Only overnight?” Tommy whines, “why only overnight?”

“Because it’s not safe in the forest right now. I’d bring the others here too if I could, but they’re not in the shape to be working just yet.” Techno sighs, shifting his feet, “you of all people should know that it’s not safe.”

“The castle isn’t that safe either. We have to hide from people, and someone stole Tubbo right out of the garden!” Tommy complains, “and I can’t even use—“

“—Quiet!” Techno shouts, gently whacking the side of his brother's head, “you will do as I say, okay? This is the best course of action to keep you two safe. What happened to Tubbo is horrid, but I already swore to you I’d get him back. And I will. Don’t doubt my promises.”

Tommy goes quiet, looking down at his feet before he nods, “okay, and I’m sorry for shouting.”

“I apologize for shouting as well.” Techno sighs, and nudges his brother's arm, “I’ll see you in a few hours, alright? I promise.”


	7. Tommyinnit: Homecoming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy hadn’t realized Philza was still alive. No one had come to find him in months, he’d gotten no letters… it was the only thing that made sense to him.

Tommy’s feet rubbed at the dirt in the castle's front garden, he kept his eyes level, gazing forward at the path that led to where he stood. Fundy stood on guard behind him, his hand white-knuckled around a netherite sword… Tommy knew he’d probably stolen it, those things were expensive. The two awaited the sound of horse’s hooves, clacking on the creaky wooden boardwalks that lead to the castle, their eyes never left the path. Reflecting in their sight, the sun was preparing for it’s decent, it was starting to sink behind the path, bathing everything in an orangey-red glow. The rays reflected onto Tommy’s skin and warmed him slightly, even if his fingers were red from the cold, and he could see gray clouds beginning to form.

“Are you sure he’s coming?” Fundy asks, shivering from the breeze. Tommy nods, blinking his eyes against the bitter wind.

“Technoblade never breaks a promise.”

Fundy goes to scoff and mock him for the belief of such a trivial thing as a promise, but the sound of horse hooves stops him. Technoblade rounds the corner and his horse snorts at the sight of the two newcomers. Tommy had honestly forgotten how intimidating the government horses were, they donned netherite armor shimmering with only the finest enchantments. 

“Techno!” Tommy calls, waving, Techno grins and gently pulls his horse to a stop.

“Thank you for waiting, Tommy and Fundy.” Techno chuckled, “I also apologize for being late, I had a few things to check before I could come here.”

“It’s alright. I’ll be here to pick him up tomorrow morning, General Blade.” Fundy dipped his hat and left, ducking into the castle’s doors. 

“Well, what are we waiting for, hm? A convoy?” Techno grins, kicking his brother's shoulder from where he sits on his horse.

“I’d like my horse,” The younger brother teases, sticking his tongue out. Techno rolls his eyes and guides his horse away. Tommy follows behind him and they go at a decently slow pace, the walk back to the cabin isn’t terribly long now with the new location. As soon as Tommy could see the cabin, a blossoming feeling filled his chest and his arms. He was so excited.

“Relax Tommy, take a breath.” Techno chuckles, slipping off his horse and nudging his younger brother with his elbow. Tommy rolls his eyes and walks brisker, making the elder brother behind him follow with a slightly elevated pace.

The two arrive at the small cabin and walk around the back to a tiny, four horse-sized stable. Tommy opens the gate and holds it for Technoblade and his horse as they walk inside. Tommy doesn’t want to help Technoblade do all the cleaning up and such he usually does after riding, so instead he decides to take a walk into the little fenced-in clearing seemingly made for the horses. Tommy was happy to see it in the new house, even if he had yet to use the area himself. Even if Philza had liked the cleanliness and the order of the stables, the horses simply didn’t like the small rooms and Tubbo and Tommy rarely rode their shared horse, so she had needed plenty of room to run and be free. Which she seemed to get here. Niki had her horse, one she’d brought from wherever she was from. The horse was pretty, Niki claimed it was a Lipizzan horse but Tommy honestly didn’t believe her. Techno was gifted one from the state, a dark brown thoroughbred who ran faster than any of their horses. Wilbur and Philza shared a horse too, a pretty black horse Tubbo always thought was a mustang.

Tommy glances across the field to see Niki’s horse, Maisie, quietly biting some flowers off in the left field. He leans down and plucks some grass from the dirt and stands again, clicking his tongue a few times as his eyes trained on a pretty chestnut and white appaloosa. Tommy’s grin grows as he rushes over to the horse, and she meets him halfway. He holds out a hand full of the grass, but the Appaloosa isn’t having any of it. She nudges him aside and bumps his chest with her nose. Laughter bubbles out of his chest and he runs his hands up and down her face and then he moves to scratch the sides of her neck. The mare nuzzled him with her nose, continuously bumping it into his chest is a sort of greeting towards him. He leans forward and rests his forehead between where her eyes are as he mumbles into her fur, “Did ‘ya miss me girl? Hm? How have you been, Mellohi?”

The horse's response is a high-pitched whiny and another nuzzle to his chest. Leaning back, Tommy brushes his hair out of his face and grins, continuing the slow petting on her face before he hears Techno’s horse run free in the field. He turns back and looks down the field at his brother.

Techno walks over to Tommy, handing him one of the buckets he holds in his hands, “Sounds like she missed you.” 

“I hope she did!” Tommy kisses her muzzle and then turns to Techno. With a hand on his back, Techno nudged him forward.

“Cmon. Let’s go get the wheelbarrows, to get some water and hay for the horses.”

* * *

Snowflakes slowly drifted down from the gray skies, a small dance that swished around the two brothers. Tongue out, Tommy closed his eyes to the sky and felt the water droplets melt onto his skin. There was a thump as the water filled the second water ‘tank’ made for the horses. Handing his bucket to Techno, Tommy rubbed his hands together and tried to warm them.

“God damn, I can't feel my hands.” He muttered and the older brother laughed, ruffling his hair.

“You sound like Philza…”

“What?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Techno shakes his head, “It looks they’re all still out, so we can start a fire and start making some dinner for them.”

Tommy nods as he shivers, the recent snowfalls hadn’t helped the chill he’d felt in his chest for the past couple of months. Though that chill was more metaphorical than literal. It was nearing December, which meant snow flurries and snow-ins were probably on their way.

Turning sharply on his heel, Techno made his way out, leaving Tommy to follow behind like a lost puppy. The two make their way around the small cabin again, this time, stopping to grab about eight pieces of firewood each. After unlocking the door with one hand, Techno opened the door and held it for the younger brother, who walked in silently. He glanced around the cabin, a completely new space to him, and Techno guided him to a small wood ring.

“You can take a look around, I’m going to start a fire, okay?” Techno shook the snow off his coat and walked back to the front door to hang it up. A head of blonde hair follows him, and a red jacket is removed from his own body as Tommy hangs it on a hook that has his name embellished above it. His blue eyes bounce from object to object carelessly but freeze when he spots a familiar black jacket. The bottom edges are muddy and frayed from years of wear and tear, and the sleeves had been given cuffs of green fabric just to make sure they’d stop falling apart. Tommy walks up to the jacket and reaches a tentative hand out, his fingers curl at their joints and he gently tugs the black fabric off its hook as he feels a trickle of salty water run down his cheek.

“Tommy?” There's a squeak of a boot, and a hand on his shoulder before Tommy collapses to his knees and curls in on the fabric in his hands. Techno momentarily panics above him and falls to his knees beside Tommy. There’s a shake of Tommy’s shoulders before a heaving breath releases a noise from the boy that Technoblade has never heard. Tearing his throat as he screams, Tommy emotes a noise that scratches and splinters in the ears of anyone nearby. He keeps going as he screams and sobs, heaving in and out his eyes filling and dumping out tears faster than anything Techno had ever seen before. There’s not just fear and anger that releases from Tommy in these sobs, there’s also pure hatred and sadness.

“Tommy!” He shouts, gently pulling the younger brother out of his fetal position and up against his chest. Tommy buried his face in the white fabric of his brother's dress shirt and sobs. Thinking of how Philza would’ve helped Techno calm down when he was young, Techno rubs his hand up and down the red jacket that Tommy wears. Tentative fingers gently apply pressure in circular motions between Tommy’s shoulder blades while the other hand slowly runs up and down his spine. After a few minutes of that position, Techno leans his back against the wall and fully pulls Tommy into his lap. 

“I miss him. I miss him and I’m never gonna see him again.” Tommy’s voice is barely a whisper.

“Tommy, I don’t know what you mean—“

“He died because of me! Because Tubbo and I were stupid and we didn’t have one of you guys outside watching us like we were supposed to! Dad’s dead because of me!” Tommy screams, a choking noise in the back of his throat signaling the tears that begin to rush down his face like rapids. Before he can move, or get a word out to calm down his brother, Techno feels a cold breeze run across his back and he turns his head, his yellow eyes glancing over at the black boots that step into the house. They carry a bit of mud and snow with them, and a hand-carved pinewood cane clicks against the wooden floor. The boots belong to a voice that breathlessly says,

“T-Tommy..?”

Two sets of blue eyes meet.

The first set is duller with the wear down of the past six months. The bags under them are from the stresses from being in a coma, regaining lost memories, waiting for broken ribs to heal, losing all magic, and having wings that aren’t even strong enough to fly. The bloodshot whites of his eyes are caused by everyone around him either fighting each other or themselves and the knowledge that he can’t find a way to help anyone. 

The other set of eyes are vibrant, full of fire and fury at a world that's taken everyone and everything from him with no remorse. They burn with salty tears caused by miscommunications and missed conversations. The tears that brim them burn with anxiety over what's to come and who he’d lost and who he’d nearly lost. The bags under his eyes are from sleepless nights, tossing and turning as his demons poke and prod at his brain. 

“D-Dad?” Tommy whispers, wiping and rubbing at his eyes like it’s too good to be true. Philza takes a second to kneel, having to apply a good amount of pressure onto the cane to get down onto his knees. As soon as Philza is down enough to open his arms towards Tommy, he scrambles forward and crashes into his father’s arms. The two sit still for a very long time, long enough for the fire to start roaring and for Niki to have already gotten halfway through dinner by the time they get up. Philza sits on his feet, his left arm protectively around Tommy’s torso while his left hand slowly tugs through his son's hair in a comforting manner. Tommy keeps both arms flung tightly around Philza’s neck, and he nuzzles his face into his father’s shoulder. The smell of pine sap and honey filling his senses and lulling his mind back to safety. After a long time, his eyelids are too heavy to hold, and he loosens his grip just enough to let a small snore slip out of his lips. 

“Get some rest, Tommy.” Philza murmurs.


	8. Family Feud, but Not a TV Show

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy realizes his home life isn't exactly what he remembers.  
> He also accidentally opens a can of worms he desperately wants to close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> only tw in this chapter is for arguing!
> 
> also, don't hesitate to comment, I love hearing what people think!

Tommy wakes up to a few different scents, the smell of logs burning, freshly cooked cinnamon rolls, and Niki’s laundry soap. He groggily sits himself up on his side and rubs at his face, blinking as he looks around the room, lit by one small lightbulb and a rush of cold air hits him as the hand-knit blanket he was wearing slips off and falls onto the floor.

“Ah! The big man’s finally awake!” Niki giggles, running over and tossing her arms around him. Tommy laughs and returns the hug, letting himself breathe in the cinnamon scent that flowed from her clothing.

“I missed you! I’m so glad you’re alright!” She grinned before rushing back into the kitchen and bringing dinner over with the assistance of Wilbur who grinned at the sight of his younger brother. 

“There’s my favorite headache.” Wilbur flicked the back off Tommy’s head and then leaned over to give him a genuine hug. Tommy didn’t make his usual snarky comment at his brother, just simply a roll of the eyes. Secretly Tommy was so overjoyed to be back in the house, he had honestly missed his little mismatched family more than he had expected to. Once Wilbur stepped back from their hug, Tommy got up from the couch and stretched, glancing towards the open spot near Philza. He knew Techno usually sat there, but currently, the High Chief General sat next to Wilbur. There was a shuffle and Philza’s wing opened, exposing the bandages and torn feathers to Tommy, but also welcoming him over. The blonde boy grinned softly and made his way over, stumbling until he sat down and nestled himself against Philza’s pinesap-smelling clothing.

“Tonight’s meal is just some simple chicken noodle soup and bread.” Niki announced, setting down some bowls and plates, “I tried to make it as warm as possible for you, Tommy. I figured hot meals like these are rare in that castle.”

“The castle had nice food.” Tommy shrugs, leaning forward to grab Philza’s bowl, and then his own before he spoke again, “but nothing will ever beat something you make, Niki.”

With her wings tucked behind her, Niki grinned as she took a seat with her own food, “don’t flatter me, Tommy.”

“I missed you, let me be soft.” A hand raised to Tommy’s mouth as he spoke, covering the fact he was talking with his mouth full.

“Speaking of the castle Tommy, how was it with Eret?” Wilbur asks as he swallows a piece of bread.

“Interesting actually! I learned a lot about how the government in Manburg works.” Tommy grins and Wilbur nods as he says, “oh really? Can you explain, since Techno never talks about it?”

“Hey, Cmon.” Laughter erupts from the pink-haired twin and Wilbur laughs along with him.

“Well, the army is the most interesting to me. The lowest rank is soldiers, then it goes up to, high soldiers, sergeants, lieutenants… uhm oh right, then there’s high lieutenants, captains, fleet captains, and commanders.” Tommy pauses and looks over at Technoblade who finished for him, “then they have the high army, which includes the high commander, deputy chief, chief, high chief, general, high general, chief general and then one high chief general.”

“Which is you, right?” Tommy sits up a bit, trying not to spill his soup.

“Yep.” Techno, despite his growing distaste for the government around him, was still proud of the fact he’d made his way through sixteen levels to get where he was today.

“How does Eret fit into the hierarchy?” Niki asks and Techno quickly answers, “He’s in the high army, but it’s a role that can only be appointed by the President or Vice President, so it doesn’t really count as part of the army since it's an unattainable ranking.”

“Interesting.” Niki hums, setting down an empty soup bowl. Then she sits up and grabs a bread knife and begins to cut the loaf, just like she always did. Tommy grins, almost tearing up at the memory. He was _home_.

Wilbur crosses his legs as he sits, leaning back into the couch cushions behind him as he speaks, “I just hate the government in Manburg, it was better back when...”

“Back when?” Tommy asks, tilting his head, and Philza sighs.

“When I was General.” Wilbur finished with a proud smile, but it faltered, “Now I’m kicked out of the country I helped make… no one even remembers me there.”

“Well, it’s not your fault you lost an election,” Philza says, setting his empty bowl in his lap, with clear resentment hidden under a layer of protection and sincerity.

“Maybe you needed the reality check.” Techno comments slyly, grinning at his brother playfully. Wilbur doesn’t take it as a joke.

“I was fine, Technoblade.” He snaps, crossing his arms, “It’s not my fault Dream was power-hungry. Doesn't he work under you now, Techno?”

“Mhm. When Schlatt came into power he removed all power from Dream and his team. Luckily, I wasn’t involved in your revolution, so I was able to immediately start climbing the ranks. Anyone involved with the war had a two-year hold before they could move up.” 

Tommy shifts, feeling the tension beginning to grow. Niki hands him and Philza a piece of bread, giving them a soft nod. Biting into the warm and sweet-tasting bread, Tommy shifted closer to Philza and nestled his head against the green sweater his father wore.

Niki sits back and comments in a soft tone, “I just… Schlatt isn’t a good person. How is he still president?”

“Approval ratings are still very high, I guess.” Techno answers honestly, even if it's not the answer he wants to give, “Only if he’s elected out in the next election, which is two years away, or loses his last life, I don’t think he’ll be leaving anytime soon.”

“He stole our brother and you still work for him?!” Wilbur slammed his empty bowl down and Philza jumped a bit in his seat, his arm slowly snaking around Tommy’s waist.

“I never said I supported him-” Techno’s cut off.

Wilbur stands, his jacket swishing behind him. The glow of the fire and the small lightbulb on the ceiling give him a shadowy glow as he glares at the brother next to him, who grits his teeth in agitation. Tommy’s never seen this rough side of Wilbur, of course, he’d known about his past as a general, but he’d never actually seen it.

“You support the person who dethroned me, who sent me out here with bounty hunters after me. You support the man who stole out brother--”

“I do not support his actions! Someone has to make money for this damn family!” Techno stands too, the scars on the side of his jaw glinting in the pale firelight. Niki quickly grabs some of the empty dishes and excuses herself to the kitchen, not wanting to see the two fight anymore. Tommy keeps his eyes centered on his two brothers and it slowly starts to click. 

He’s the son, and brother, of two people who at one point had taken over a majority of the world. He’s the brother of a retired war general, a president, or king, who had been forced out of his throne. He’s (kinda) the nephew of an angel, which is shocking enough.

How the hell did he get shoved into this family?

“You are not my--”

“ _Enough_.” Philza finally says, raising one hand abruptly. The brothers turn back to look at their father, who clicks his tongue in an annoyed manner, “If you two are going to have problems, you will _discuss_ them, not fight.”

Tommy takes this moment to slip out of Philza’s grasp and into the kitchen, where Niki quietly hums as she sets some plates aside. At the sound of the younger boy, she turns with a grin and steps aside whilst saying, “it’s about time I had my favorite dishwasher here.”

“Do you want help?” Tommy asks and Niki nods, motioning to some dirty bowls and cups. She steps to the side and grabs some already washed plates and begins to dry them off. 

“Did you come in here to help me?” She asks after a beat of silence. Tommy shakes his head before softly admitting,

“No, uhm. I got uncomfortable with the arguing, actually.”

“Then I’m glad you’re only here tonight.”

“What do you mean?” Tommy says, nearly dropping a slippery metal plate as Techno suddenly raises his voice in the other room, Niki cringes.

“Between Philza’s health and recovery, trying to keep ourselves hidden, and trying to find you and Tubbo… we’ve been arguing almost every night.” Niki sighs, “I miss before the hunt when everything was calm.”

Before Tommy can speak, Techno passes through the living room, quick stomps until he reaches the door. He grabs his jacket and his boots, sliding both shoes on, hastily tying them, throwing his jacket on one arm and opening the door, and slamming it as he leaves.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever get that serenity back,” Tommy murmurs as his eyes stare at the door for a few seconds. The rest of the dishes are finished in silence. 

Tommy makes his way back into the living room, his hands rubbing up and down his shirt sleeves. There was no sign of Wilbur, besides a beanie resting on the floor. With a soft grunt, Philza glances over. Crinkling his eyes in a squint, Tommy notes he’s taken his hat off, which is something the boy hadn’t seen in some time. Quietly passing the couch, he takes a seat next to his father and curls up in the warmth of his wing and his arm, nuzzling his head into his father's shoulder as he’d done as a kid.

Philza lets out a soft sigh and leans back slightly, making the position more comfortable for the youngest. His wing curls protectively around him, like a make-shift blanket, and Philza rests his head on Tommy’s.

Niki ends up carrying Tommy to bed that night.


	9. Prepare for The Fright of Your Life

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tommy helps the set-up of the festival and meets a familiar face again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tws: arson, implied death, and people being burnt :(

The cold air seemed to freeze Tommy’s hands after only a few minutes, and the faint early morning sun offered no help. Tommy lugged a big red bag over his shoulder, Fundy beside him doing the same. They had been told they had to help set up for the festival, so here they were, dragging the supplies that made their breath restrict when they carried it. Approaching a stall labeled ‘flower shop’ they dropped their bags and Tommy groaned.

“I swear, these things are twice my weight!” He shouts, causing the fox shapeshifter to laugh in sharp, high-pitched exhales. Tommy groaned and muttered a string of curses as he cracked his back and tore open his bag. Inside there were supplies for the large plant-covered stall, and as he glanced at Fundy’s he saw that he had the other half of the supplies.

“Look, all we have to do is unload this stuff and set it up according to the blueprints stapled here.” Fundy shrugged, beginning to grab some supplies out of his bag, “and the faster we do this, the faster we get back to fireplaces and heating.”

“You’re right.” Tommy chuckles and begins to empty his bag onto the table. The two work in silence, with the occasional sly comment at the other about a misplacement of an item or the weather. The breeze is relentless and constantly blowing, making it through their clothing and making even their skin icy. Snow starts to fall by the time the two are finished, but it’s too frigid to even enjoy the flakes that drift down.

“Excuse me, gentlemen!” A familiar voice shouts and Tommy cranes his neck to see someone approaching. His breath hitches and a tremor rolled through his body as a chill of dread ran up his spine. 

“Tubbo..?” Fundy’s voice trembles, his ears flattening as his posture straightened. The boy cocks his head to the side at their seemingly odd, but nods. He seems the same, body language-wise, but Tommy notes the three-piece suit, which was something Tubbo would’ve never worn without being told to, and the odd blue semi-circle that wraps around only the right side of his eyes.

“Yes, sorry, you guys just seemed shocked to see me? Do we… know each other?” Tubbo rocked back and forth, his hands idly rubbing together.

“Do we know each other?” Tommy lets out a short, miserable huff from his lips.

Tubbo bites his lip after he says, “Yeah, that's what I asked--”

“We were best friends, Tubbo!” Tommy exclaimed.

“Surely not, I’d remember my best friend.” Tubbo crossed his arms, half-stepping back.

“Wh-what do you mean you don’t remember me? We grew up together!” His breath hitched as he stammered and all Tommy could do was stare in shock at his lifelong “best friend.” Every memory he’d ever made with him rushed back in a flurry of emotions that filled his senses. But the first-ever true promise they’d made stuck into his brain like a splinter.

* * *

_“It’s us against the world.” Tubbo had promised one night, right as the flames outside began to lick at the interior of the home. As the fire began to roar, Tommy told Tubbo to stay put as he ran into the adjacent room his parents slept in. In a rush of emotions, he screamed the home was burning. Back in the room, he came from, the fire raced up the fabric blanket. Burning bright, it was hot and red against any fabric and skin it managed to touch, and Tubbo’s screams and pleas pierced through the crackling of the flames._

_“Get Tubbo and run, now!” His father had shoved him in the hall as the back door burst open from outside. Panicking, a nine-year-old Tommy grabbed the slightly older boy, and in a rush slammed his hands into his leg that had flames spiraling up from it. His lungs were filled with smoke that smelled like bacon and metal. Tubbo screamed the whole time, begging Tommy to stop it and Tommy tried. He tried so hard. But he couldn’t save the delicate flesh._

_“Please, just hold on! We’ll get help!” Tommy cried, shifting the slightly older boy into his arms. Sparing no glances back at his parent's scuffle in the kitchen with some hunters, Tommy ran into the woods, tears burning his eyes as he desperately clawed at Tubbo. The youngest was pleading for help as the smell of burning covered his leg and the smoke-filled his lungs so much that he couldn’t talk without coughing._

_In a clearing, Tommy collapsed in a coughing fit as his legs burned from running so far. He hacked until his lungs squeezed and constricted, he felt hot tears slip down his cheeks as he realized he was unable to breathe anymore. Tubbo fell onto the ground, unable to walk due to his injured leg. He pulled Tommy under the foliage, gripping the blonde’s arms and holding him close._

_“It’s us against the world. It’s us against the world.” Tubbo repeated in a pained frenzy, pressing his forehead to that of his friends. They hid under the thick foliage at the edge of the clearing, sharing body heat and protection from the cold winter night. All Tommy could think of was his home and the memories of the family inside. A mother and father, who did all they could to raise their son and his friend. They’d repressed the sights of sounds of their parents into the back of their own minds. Their parents went up in smoke, why couldn’t his memories do the same?_

_“Don’t move!” A voice shouted from above, and on instinct, Tommy gripped Tubbo’s shirt, prepared to tear the boys onto his back and carry him away._

_“Who’s there?” The voice said again, gentler. Tommy looks over at the voice, noticing it's from a small brunette girl who can’t be much older than them, coughing into his sleeve roughly as Tubbo hisses and whimpers in pain beside him._

_“H-Help!” The elder cried, the young girl turned, her skirt splaying in a circle as she looked feverishly. Her eyes settled on the boys cowering and her breath caught, turning sharply and whipping back into the house she cried, “Philza! Wilbur! The noise was two kids! Please hurry, I think they’re badly hurt!”_

* * *

Now that promise that Tubbo had repeated felt... _fake_.

“I’m sorry, I wish I knew you two, you seem lovely.” Tubbo looked away, and to Tommy, those words were a dagger through his heart.

“I-What?!” Tommy shouted and Fundy held a hand up as he saw someone approach. Ears turned back, pinned to the sides of his head, Fundy bowed his head.

“Hey, Secretary Tubbo.” The man spoke, ram horns shining in the light, “Is there a problem?”

“Uh, no sir. I was simply about to tell these two that the main room of the castle is open for them to sit in for lunch. But do… do I know them, sir?” Tubbo shifts awkwardly and Schlatt grins, scraping his sharp nails across the side of the boy's jaw, just enough to draw blood. With curious eyes, Tommy and Fundy watch as Tubbo’s irises glow a pale blue color and pulse a few times before the bright blue circle around them finally fully completes its rotation around his blue iris.

“No.” Schlatt says, his yellow eyes narrowing in the direction of Tommy as he grins with his fanged teeth, “not anymore, anyways. C’mon Kid, we’ve got things to do.”

“Yes, sir.” Tubbo bows to the two in front of him and sharply turns, walking uniformly beside Schlatt. The ram grins and ruffles the secretary's hair.

“What, and I cannot stress this enough,” Fundy looked back at Tommy, “The _fuck_ , was that?!”

“He doesn’t remember me..?” Tommy mused, looking down at the green string that held the necklace he’d been gifted by Philza. Did Tubbo even still have his matching necklace and charm?

“No no, he does. I could see it, there was a pull!” Fundy tries to reassure the human before him, but Tommy just casts his gaze aside.

“It was mind control.” Tommy states plainly, adjusting a few of the plants on the stand and doing one last run over of the blueprint, “can you go tell Eret so he can tell my dad?”

“Your dad?” Fundy asks and Tommy reddens as he snaps, “Philza! Ugh, just- let's go dickhead!”

* * *

Tommy makes his way to the castle, following Fundy. They’d decided it was simply too cold to keep stacking items, and they knew they’d rather not get frostbite. As they slipped in, Fundy took to the stairs to go find Eret, while Tommy walked over towards a group of mismatched people.

Against a wall, two generally tall guys sat. One wore a creeper mask that hid the majority of his face and the other was a clear hybrid due to the patches of Enderman skin that littered his visible, otherwise human, skin. Across from them was Sapnap, a guard Tommy vaguely remembered from their first day at the castle. The hybrid looks up and sees Tommy, he grins and waves him over.

“Hello! I’m Ranboo.” He says, offering Tommy a cookie. The blonde happily takes it as he introduces himself, “I’m Tommy.”

“I’m Sam.” The guy in the creeper mask says softly as he waves. Sapnap offers a small wave and grin but doesn’t say anything.

“Are you a state guard from the new batch?” Ranboo asks and Tommy quickly shakes his head.

“No, I just live here, honestly.” Tommy chuckles biting into the cinnamon-smelling cookie. It makes him think of Niki.

“Ah, we’re both old army guards… nowadays we just build things.” Sam explains, “which I honestly like better.”

“Who else do you work with?” Tommy asks, glancing around the room.

“Well, there’s Purpled, Punz, Karl, and Antfrost. Punz, Karl, and Antfrost are still guarding like I am, but Purpled is just a builder like Ranboo and Sam.” Sapnap explains, “There’s also rumors of a new hire named Connor who apparently works under Schlatt, but no one has actually seen him.”

“I doubt the guy even exists, Dream probably just made it up to screw with you.” Sam laughs softly, rubbing his hands together to try and warm them. Ranboo laughs softly, idly tapping his long fingers against the wooden floor. Tommy notes his eyes have a similar line around them like Tubbo’s.

“Hey, what with the line around your eyes? I noticed someone else with them.” Tommy abruptly blurts, Ranboo turns and sighs softly.

“It’s a side effect of my magic, which is called ‘temporary telekinesis.’ When I use up the magic I have, the circles slowly start to deplete until they fully unwrap my iris. If I use all of it, I’ll pass out.” Ranboo waves his hands slightly as he speaks, keeping his gaze partially beside Tommy, “Anyone who’s being mind-controlled or experiencing any level of psychic ability or telepathy will have the circles, once they circles deplete, the magic is gone.”

“So if they rewrapped the iris, the magic is fully recharged?” Tommy asks and Ranboo nods.

“What’s your power?” Sapnap asks, “you seem to know a good bit about magic, Tommy.”

“I’m not sure yet, but it’s something with telepathy I think.” Tommy explains and Sam gasps slightly beside him, “Dude! That’s rare, I wish I could do that. I can just self-destruct at will.”

“That's so cool though!” Tommy exclaims, Sam says a soft thank you and the group falls quiet. There are a few beats of silence before boots squeak in the doorway. Sapnap stands as a guard with white mask waves him over, calling his name sharply.

“Ugh, General Dream.” Ranboo spits angrily, “ever since that army hunt, he’s been acting so cold.”

“He’s been acting super blunt to me, he won't even look at me.” Tommy rests his back against the cold brick wall.

“He had to kidnap a kid, from what I’ve heard.” Sam pops another cookie in his mouth, “apparently it’s screwed him up.”

“Clearly.” Ranboo sighs, “I can’t imagine how it feels to be one of the president’s main… dogs.”

“Probably gross. I would hate to be in his shoes.” Sam admits, laughing.

Tommy thinks back to everything he knows about Technoblade and how he’d raised to his position. He only became the High Chief General so he could save up enough money to help Philza. Tommy looks away as he says, “Don’t those types of people get the most money though?”

“Mhm. But they have to do the shittiest tasks. Murder people, kidnap them… they’re the ones that do the army hunts. They’ll literally kidnap kids.” Ranboo shows a tag attached to his ear, “Then they bring them here to do work.”

“That's sick.” Tommy gags and Ranboo nods, “I miss my sister, but everyone back home is safer if I stay here.”

“So I take it you don’t support the government here?” Tommy asks softly and both Ranboo and Sam laugh.

“Hell no!” Ranboo exclaims. The group begins to laugh and their soft and abrasive banter fills the castle walls with joyful noise the bricks haven’t been able to bounce around in months. They talk about anything, magic, the government, the country itself, their favorite snacks… anything. Their conversation flows until Eret and Fundy come down and tell the guards it's time for them to go home and it’s time for Tommy to prepare for sleep. With their departure, Tommy knows one thing.

Ranboo and Sam are new allies.


	10. The Festival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Schlatt's announcement at the festival is less than ideal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for gun violence, gore, and the beginnings of temporary character death (aka when they die--)

Tommy’s boots squeaked as he stepped on the stone floor placed down for the festival. The small area was bustling with sweet-smelling goods, children running with toys, and parents talking over drinks and food. Tommy’s eyes glanced from person to person excitedly, Wilbur beside him shoved his hands into his jacket pockets and looked around with less wonder than his younger brother. With a soft giggle, Niki sneaks a cookie off a nearby counter and splits it in fourths. Handing one to everyone there, she takes her place walking beside Philza again.

“Remember, guys, be calm.” He says gently, biting into the sweet cookie, “we’re just spectators--”

“They have a dunk tank?!” Tommy shouts and Niki and Wilbur immediately burst into laughter.

“Dear God, why do I put up with you people.” Philza laments through a small grin, “but seriously, be calm, don’t act out of place. Just be fucking normal for once in your lives. Our seats are in the back row all the way to the left, go off and have fun, but be back before the speeches okay?”

Everyone nods, and then quickly disperses.

__

Tommy bit into the cookie he’d won in a minigame, the sweet taste of chocolate and cinnamon filling his mouth as he hummed happily. As he went to lick a bit of the melted chocolate off his finger, someone grabbed his wrist and yanked him back, expertly muffling his shout with their hand and pulling him to the ground.

“Shh, shh, stop, _stop_ , oh my god, _please_.” The figure murmured, pressing a hand to his mouth until they could slip around Tommy and show him their face. Tommy bit their hand and the taller figure shrieked.

“Dude! It’s just me!” He whined, sitting back and looking down the alley as if trying to find something.

“You fucken yanked me over here for no reason, Ranboo!” Tommy cried, rubbing his wrist.

“Not for no reason…” Another voice says and Tommy whips around as he scrambles to his feet. It’s been three weeks since he’d last heard that voice, and there he stands. His arms are folded uniformly behind his back and his smile is weak. He looks thin, almost _too_ thin, and Tommy feels a streak of anger in his chest.

“Tubbo?!” Tommy cries, bringing his hands up to himself, afraid to reach out. Tubbo nods and laughs, moving forwards and headbutting Tommy’s chest. Tommy laughs, despite the sharp pain in his chest from Tubbos headbutt, and wraps his arms around his friend. The two hold each other for a moment, Tubbo smells like cigarettes, alcohol, and starch, his movements are slow but strong, and he grips Tommy tighter than he ever has before. Tommy smells like cinnamon, fire, and chocolate, his movements are quick and strong, and he holds Tubbo like he’s afraid to hurt him and lose him.

“I-What?” Tommy leans back, holding Tubbo’s shoulders, “god you look sick!”

“I might, to be honest.” Tubbo shrugs, rubbing his temples, “I’ve had a never-ending headache for weeks.”

“That's no good, have you been eating? Or sleeping? Or drinking enough water?” Tommy asks, looking his friend up and down, Tubbo shakes his head and grabs Tommy’s wrists.

“Look, I don’t have much time. Please, just listen, okay? Ranboo and I have been doing some testing. We figured out that Schlatt is doing some sort of mind control and there are two ways to weaken it, distance and time. I just-just have to get away for long enough to get out of his control.” Tubbo rambles, talking with his hands and making odd gestures.

“Tubbo, go to the old cabin. The basement is unlocked and the only thing you’ll need is something to keep warm. All our old stuff is there.”

“The old cabin?” Tubbo asks and Tommy sighs.

“They found a new cabin, it was too dangerous to stay in the old one.”

“Ah.” Tubbo shifts from foot to foot before he nods, “okay.”

“I hate to break up the conversation but Schlatt’s about to make his speech,” Ranboo says, walking back into the alley. Tommy nods and gives Tubbo another hug, nuzzling his face into Tubbo’s neck. He inhales the smell of cigarettes and alcohol once more, hoping that Tubbo’s not the one using them before he pulls back. Tubbo grins and nods, walking over to where Ranboo stands. In a blur, the two vanish into the crowd and Tommy waits a few seconds before he takes his own leave. With quick steps, Tommy’s eyes glance from person to person until he takes a seat next to Philza. His father grins softly and wraps an arm around him, pulling him towards him,

“You seem oddly happy, Tommy, what happened?” Philza asked, brushing some of his hair back from his face.

“I saw Tubbo, he’s okay.” Tommy whispers and Philza nods with a grin.

“I’m glad-”

The crowd cheers, cutting off and hiding what Philza says. He turns, looking over as his eyes scan the stage. Wearing matching suits, Schlatt, Tubbo, and a third guy Tommy hasn’t seen before, walk onto the stage. The crowd continues to applause as Schlatt motions for the two to take their seats. As Schlatt steps up to the mic he raises his hand, and the whole city falls quiet. Only children and babies babble and murmur as their parents softly hush them.

“My citizens of the great Manburg, welcome!” Schlatt shouts and the audience cheers again, “This is the third annual Manburg festival, and don’t I have some news for you! I’ll speak, then our new secretary Tubbo will, then our Vice President Quackity will.

Tommy’s eyes scan the stage trying to count everyone who’s on the stage. Behind Tubbo stand two guards, Sapnap and a guy with white goggles he can’t remember the name of, they try to joke around but a harsh low toned whistle from Technoblade cuts them off. Behind Quackity stands Technoblade and Dream, exchanging glances of soft murmurs of conversation as they glare at the audience.

“First off, I’d like to thank everyone for coming to this festival.” Schlatt clasps his hands together, “and I’d like to give a huge shoutout to our newest Sargeant, Dream, for his recruitment this year!”

The audience cheers and claps, Philza’s grip tightens on Tommy’s shoulder. 

“He managed to recruit our secretary, Tubbo! And he’s been a wonderful addition to our government.” Schlatt smiles, patting Tubbo’s back a little too harshly, shoving him forward by his collar.

“Why don’t you make a speech, Tubbo?” He grins sharply, and Tubbo nods. Taking the podium.

“That bastard. Dream kidnapped him.” Wilbur grumbled, his grip on Niki’s sleeve tightening. Nervously, Philza kept his hold on Tommy’s shoulders, his fingernails cutting the skin without meaning to. Tommy doesn’t mind the grounding.

Schlatt’s grip tightened on Tubbo’s shoulder as the group beneath him murmured in a confusion of what his announcement was. He blinked harshly, the ink on the page in front of Tubbo swirled as he tried to focus. No, this couldn’t be what it said… was it? Was he dreaming? Please this _couldn’t_ be it.

“C'mon kid. Say the announcement.” Schlatt murmured through gritted teeth, standing behind the boy on stage. Quackity tilted his head in confusion, shuffling the papers in his hands, wondering what was taking Tubbo so long.

“As of…” Tubbo shakes, he knows this is going to hurt more coming from him. He can barely keep his anger contained, and he feels tears beginning to pool in his eyes and he feels them start to roll down, “as of today, all fae are to be h-hunted for their wings. The N-northern forest is known to—“

Tubbo shrieks and slams a hand onto the podium, breathing shakily, as the microphone lets out a scream. Schlatt grips his shoulder tighter, tugging his skin with the edge of his fingernail. It was just enough to expose some blood, just enough to control the boy for enough time to get him to speak clearly. That’s all Schlatt needed.

“The Northern forest is known to have fae living within it. Act fast as only ten faes remain, there will be a _five million dollar_ reward for every fae feather brought to the government.” Tubbo blinks and he regains focus, his hands digging into the podium as he gasps and stutters, his irises flicker in a pattern from blue, to gold, to blue. Shaking, he cries and shouts out even as Schlatt takes the microphone away from him.

“Run! Please! Schlatt is going to mind control— gah!” Before he can finish, he’s grabbed by his collar and Schlatt chucks back onto the stage. His skull burns as he hits his head first, his body following after harshly and he whimpers softly, quickly scrambling back away from Schlatt who kicks his side and steps on his legs. The boy lets out some sort of pained shout as he looks around the stage for something to use. On his left he spots a bow and reaches out for it, only to be lifted by his hair and thrown to the front of the stage. Dead front of center where everyone can see him. The boy hits roughly, turning onto his back as the audience watches in horror.

“You think you can break my spells and get away with it, Tubbo? You’ve been working wonderfully these past few weeks and now you’re gonna act up? Huh?” Schlatt grabs his collar, bending down so he’s level with the boy. He grabs two fistfuls, one of fabric, and one of hair and skin.

“Ow!” Tubbo cries, kicking and trying to pry Schlatt away as he is forced to his feet again. He starts to cry while screaming, “Stop! Please!”

Schlatt pushes Tubbo back until his back is flush against the president's chair. The black stone cuts into his back and before Tubbo can go and run towards Techno, who’s taken a few steps close, his eyes trained on a sleek and deadly black weapon, the metal barrel is pointed at his head.

“A gun!” Someone cries in the audience and Tubbo’s eyes widen in shock as he tries to quickly block his body with his arms.

Despite being the closest, Techno freezes up. Guns are illegal in the lands, regardless of what power you hold. Seeing a gun pointed should be enough proof for Technoblade to obliterate the president in one swoop, but he hesitates. Grabbing his crossbow, he loads it but doesn’t move from his position. The two thoughts that run through his mind are to either stop Schlatt or protect Tubbo. But before he can move, he already sees a set of familiar, almost homely, arms wrap around the boy. He doesn’t have time to scream, to tell Philza to move, as two loud bangs echo through the city as it falls into silence for just a beat, then there’s a few screams as people duck and hide with one another. Dream and Sapnap are quick to wrestle the gun out of Schlatt’s hand and they restrain him, George runs off to help the audience clear out of harm's way. The High Chief General offhandedly notes seeing Ant and Karl following him.

“Philza!” Tubbo shouts, cradling the body of his bleeding father, who coughs into his arm, still trying to block Tubbo from the horrors behind him.

“No!” Niki sobs from the audience, drawing Techno’s attention. The angel is trying to run forward, but Wilbur and Eret hold her back by her arms until she falls to her knees hysterically. Wilbur focuses as his arm starts to mold into a sword, he kneels beside her, gripping her dress shirt with his still humanoid hand to keep her still while whispering to her. He keeps his eyes razor-sharp on the stage where Philza hides his face in the crook of Tubbo’s neck, keeping his arms wrapped as tight as he can around the boy as he coughs and sputters. He tries to ignore the heaving of his lungs, the feeling of his stomach twisting, the burning of the newly exposed blood vessels and skin caused by the bullet's path, and the wet, stickiness of the blood that coats his lips. This isn’t his first time dying, he wasn’t even afraid of death, hell, he welcomed it. But dying wasn’t the scary part. It was the visual process and the process of reviving that scared the fae. Techno could almost feel the weight of the necklace around his neck grow as he stared forward, his eyes glaring into the back of Philza’s jacket, he turned and pointed his crossbow at the ram horned president. Keen on keeping him there.

“Philza!” Tubbo screamed as his grip tightens on his father, “Please! No!”

Eret grabs Tommy’s arm and yanks him back, “Fundy! Bring Tommy back to the castle and then get back here, go!”

Fundy grabs Tommy and pulls him back as he starts to run away, some other citizens take their leave at this time, pulling out armor or shields as they run to protect themselves. Fundy shoves Tommy ahead of him, breaking the boy's tearful stare at his father. They don’t have any time to waste. Sam, Ranboo, and a few other state guards draw their weapons pointed at Schlatt.

“Tubbo! Get off the stage!” Eret shouts, pulling a sword out from underneath his cape, blocking Fundy and Tommy’s escape route so no one could follow them through the bushes that led to the paths. The king watches them go and grits his teeth, turning towards the debacle on stage.

Tubbo screamed again, his hands curling in the dark green fabric of Philza’s shirt, he ducked his head forwards and cried, begging for him to be okay. Across the stage, Sapnap was slammed up against the wall by Schlatt, his chest cracking under the pressure of Schlatt’s head ramming into it. The President whipped around, slicing part of Sapnap’s shoulder as he glared at Dream and then charged at him with his head down, grabbing the sword out of his sheath and swinging at Dream. The Sergeant was able to block a good amount of Schlatt’s hits, but he wasn’t fighting offensively, thus he was backed off the stage until he fell into the water below. Growling erupted from Schlatt’s throat as he made his way towards the secretary who clung to his pseudo-father. As the shadow grew over him, Tubbo looked up with tears in his eyes as a hand was rapidly lowered towards him. 

A scream rippled through the crowd and Techno fired, directly at Schlatt. There was no hesitation in his fire. It didn’t matter anymore.

_And then it suddenly did._

“Techno!” Someone screamed, and only then did Techno realize what he’d done. Standing before Schlatt was Tubbo, smoke, and embers flicking off his bloodstained uniform, the skin around his left eye burned red and bled from small cracks as bits of the rocket lodged in his skin. Techno grimaces at the sight, but he doesn’t have much time to think before he notices the obvious duller color in the boy's eyes and the ring of blue around his irises.

“Get him, Tubbo,” Schlatt commanded, stepping to the side to grab a fistful of Philza’s hair. His fingers sunk into the blood-stained follicles and he grinned, hoisting the man to his feet and watching as his eyes drained of their fight before speaking in a honey-sweet tone, “Get him, now.”

Techno stuttered, stepping back, he couldn’t do this again. He couldn’t fight his family again. Tubbo pulled out a bow and arrows and aimed, Techno dodged the first few hits and ducked under him, just barely dodging Philza’s swipe of his sword. Niki had managed to get up onto the stage, as Techno noticed her raise a shield in front of him, Wilbur rolled directly into the line of fire and both of the mind-controlled puppets stilled as Schlatt raised a hand, his back facing his enemies. A stupid decision, Techno thought, as he pulled back an arrow in his crossbow.

“You monster!” He screamed at Schlatt and the ram only laughed, his yellow eyes staring at Techno as he grabbed at Philza’s sleeve,

“The true monster is here!” He shouted as he tugged back on the jacket as hard as he could. No one had enough time to react, the black wings furled out. Niki tensed as the small amount of the audience remained tense. There, on stage, stood a fae, one that they could capture. The state guards panicked, knowing they were technically supposed to be keeping Philza’s identity protected, but their own president had just broken his own laws.

“Philza!” Tubbo cries, a note that he’d broken from the spell. Philza slumps onto his knees and Schlatt grins, turning on his heel and walking away, grabbing Tubbo’s sleeve. The boy screams and tries to get back to Philza, the noise he makes shatters everyone's hearts as he’s forced away before the mind-control kicks in and he turns and walks uniformly behind Schlatt.

Wilbur drops, his hands back to normal, he grips at Philza’s face and the fae smiles softly. He grips Wilbur’s wrist and reaches out to Techno, who drops down beside him and gently grabs his hands.

“Dad, dad, it’s going to be okay. You’re going to be okay.” He whispers, gently guiding Philza to lay down on the stage. Wilbur adjusts so he’s adjacent to Techno and the guards silently make a circle around the grieving family to hide their faces as best they can. They even face away. Eret stands outside the circle with Fundy, and the two dip their heads in respect. Eret removing his crown, and Fundy removing his hat.

Niki drops beside him, and Wilbur and Techno stare at her with a slight glimmer in their eyes that quickly fades as she shakes her head, “No… he’s too far gone, I can’t help him now.”

“Boys.” Philza rasps, raising a hand to cup their faces respectively, “I’ll be back before you know it. I promise. It will be okay.”

“I’ll make him pay, Dad. I will.” Techno dips his head and Philza grits his teeth, groaning as the blood flow starts to lessen in his limbs and his arms get hard to hold up.

“Don’t, Techno. Please, no fighting.” His hands finally fall and Niki holds back a sob, biting her lip as she tries to do something to lessen the pain. Techno shakes his head and the family falls silent, Philza’s breaths slowing as his legs slowly start to fade into white smoke. Wilbur begins to hum a slow tune, running his hands through Philza’s hair, before the magic reaches Philza’s chest. They all sit back and watch, letting the man close his eyes as he slowly disappears. Wilbur picks up his hat, which had fallen off at some point, and Techno grabs Philza’s discarded coat. The guards dissemble and rush off to their duties throughout the kingdom, Techno hands the coat to Eret and whispers.

“For Tommy.”

Eret nods and clicks his tongue once and Fundy snaps out of his dissociative state and follows behind Eret. Niki helps Wilbur to his feet and they take their leave, heading towards the temporary stables set for visitors of the festival. Techno heads opposite, towards the state’s barracks. The stage is vacant only ten minutes later, the only evidence of the battle being the blood that soaks and stains into the black wood of the stage.


	12. Philza Minecraft: Rise From the Ashes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Philza wakes up after his reviving, Tommy's there by his side, even as it doesn't seem to be working right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Philza is now a metaphorical phoenix, which gives me an excuse to make an Ace Attorney reference.
> 
> TW for sickness, and near-death

The first thing Philza feels is a burning sensation in his lungs as they regenerate. He gasped and sputtered, his eyes fluttering open as the sensation rolled down his stomach. It was one of the worst pains he’d ever felt as every cell and every organ burned back to life, they sparked and glowed with magic as his bones reconstructed and his cells multiplied into skin. He let out a shuddering breath as he watched his body be reborn. Fire like colors swirling and engulfing him like a newborn phoenix.

“Dad..?” Someone murmurs from the doorway, a candlelit lantern swaying into the dark room he laid in.

“W-what…” Philza trails off, trying to move, but his body isn’t fully back yet. There’s a stammer and the light disappears for a few seconds before the person decides to just stay in the room. They stumble over a few objects that have seemingly been thrown onto the floor as they grab a chair and yank it over to sit next to him. As the light is set down, Philza can make out the outline of Tommy’s jaw and cheek, with the yellow light cutting against his pale skin and shining against his blue eyes.

“Toms…” He grunts, lifting an arm over to his youngest. He flinches as Philza’s fire-hot touch reaches his cold skin, but soon leans into it.

“Are you back..?” Tommy asks, his blue eyes staring into Philza’s. He nods.

“Not completely yet, my muscles and all still need to strengthen up but… yeah, I’m here.” And then it hits him.

Tommy had _never_ seen Philza respawn before.

The boy gasps and clutches his hand, shutting his eyes and leaning into Philza’s touch as much as he could. Philza waited, feeling the energy to move his muscles slowly come back. He wanted to yank Tommy against his chest and let him listen to his heartbeat, let him feel the blood cool off in his hands, but he’d have to wait. It was too dangerous to falter now. He needed supplies.

“Toms, I need you to do something for me, okay? First, can you see if anyone else is awake, they know about the regeneration? Then, if they aren’t, I need you to get me something to eat and drink and then dig in the chest under my bed and find a purple potion with a red cap, okay?” Philza explains with a raspy tone and Tommy nods and quickly clambers across the room, leaving the candle with Philza. There are soft sounds of Tommy rushing around in the house as Philza sits himself up and leans against the wall his bed is pressed against until he can prop the pillow up behind him to lay back. Maybe twenty or so minutes later, Tommy comes back in whilst balancing a plate and a cup in one hand, the other hand holding some bread and other things in the basket. Philza grins softly as Tommy sets them down and cracks open the bedroom curtains, allowing some morning light to seep it.

“You usually sleep in later than Wilbur.” Philza muses, pressing a hand to Tommy’s cheek again, trying to comfort the obvious fear he can see in the traces of a frown. Instinctually, Tommy leans into the gentle, calloused touch of his father.

“I couldn’t sleep,” Tommy admits, gently guiding a cup of water to Philza. He takes it with shaking hands and Tommy keeps one hand on the cup to make sure he doesn’t drop it. Wide blue eyes watch Philza’s every movement, every breath, every tremor in his hands, every shake of his wings. Tommy’s terrified and exhausted, it doesn’t take a scientist to notice that.

“Why couldn’t you sleep, mate?” Philza asks and Tommy stammers.

“Dad! You look like a corpse! Why are you worried about me?” Tommy breaks the bread beneath his thumbs and hands it over to Philza to eat in small bits.

“Because you’re my son, Tommy. Now, why couldn’t you sleep?” Philza smiles as Tommy slowly pulls a trundle box out from under the bed and begins to root through it for the potion. He doesn’t respond to Philza just yet, but a ghost of a smile coats his lips. It takes him a few minutes but he finds the potion at the button of the box before he shuts the box and kicks it under the bed. 

“I was worried you wouldn’t actually respawn,” Tommy admits as his gaze casts down. He watches his hands as he swirls the shimmering liquid in the bottle.

“Why wouldn’t I have respawned? I have…” Philza pauses, moving his sleeve aside to look at the markings on his arm, five of ten red hearts stare up at him, “five lives left.”  
“So did my parents.” Tommy whispers, “My dad had three, my mom had seven. But when Niki went back to the house to try and find them, they were just corpses.”

“Tommy.” Philza grabs the blonde's wrist, causing him to look over.

“I’m never leaving you, never like that.” He whispers, raising an arm to wipe the saline tears that pool under Tommy’s brassy eyes. HE whimpers against Philza’s too hot touch but closes his eyes and breathes. He knows in the back of his mind that everything is okay now, but the bottle’s weight suddenly re-registers in Tommy’s mind and he hastily uses his teeth to pop the cap off before handing it over to Philza. In one fluid motion, Philza swigs the potion and then cringes as he bites his lip with a sour face. With some confusion, Tommy takes the potion shortly after and runs his thumb along the intricately written label.

“ ∷ᒷ⊣ᒷリᒷ∷ᔑℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ !¡𝙹ℸ ̣ ╎𝙹リ, ᒷ╎⊣⍑ℸ ̣ ᒲ╎リ⚍ℸ ̣ ᒷᓭ “

Tommy blinks a few times, trying to figure out what the symbols mean. Chuckling, Philza grabs a water bottle from Tommy’s lap and pops the lid off with his pointy fingernail, and takes a few sips of the clear liquid.

“Dad, what does this say?” Tommy asks, holding it out.

“Regeneration Potion, eight minutes.” Philza reads simply as Tommy sets it down. The boy stares at him with wide eyes but nods anyway. 

“How…?”

“Adventurers guild.” Philza explains softly, “I used to be the only person there that could read that language, so I use it quite often to hide important things. If people can’t read labels, they usually leave them alone.”

“Can you teach me how to read that?” Tommy grins and Philza ruffles his hair.

“Of course,” He thinks back to how Tubbo already knew the majority of the ‘enchanting language’ from classes with Niki, “You’ll probably need it in life anyway, and if not, it’s a good way to send secret messages.”

“Toms?” Wilbur’s voice calls from the hall.

“In here! Dad’s back!” Tommy shouts and Wilbur pops his head in the door with a grin as he says, “Welcome back, Dad.”

“Thanks, Wil.” Philza sighs, shuffling his wings as he pushes some of the blankets off of his legs. Wilbur comes to take a seat next to Philza and Tommy shifts to the side to allow Wilbur to have more room. Wilbur seemingly launches into action, he rips the bread into tiny pieces and sets the water bottle against Philza’s hip. He checks the potion to make sure it was the right one before he placed a hand on Philza’s neck.

“You’re still burning up, we need to get you more regeneration. I’ll have Niki brew some.” Wilbur leaves the room, urgency in his motions. Philza sighs, leaning back fully against the pillows.

“How do you feel?” Tommy asks nervously, toying with the hem of his shirt. 

“I feel fine-” Philza’s lie is cut off by a loud cough, using his elbow to cover his mouth. Tommy quickly grabs the water bottle and a rag from the bedside, gently nudging his father back to a lying position.

“Toms, grab Wil.” Philza rasps and Tommy panics before rushing out of the room. Philza’s stomach burns, along with his back, and his wings stretch and retract in agitation. How could he have been so stupid, he should’ve had Tommy wake Wilbur first thing. He can faintly hear Tommy's voice approach the room before it’s cut off by a quick reprimand by Wilbur. The door breaks open and Philza can faintly see Tommy’s sleeve before it’s blocked by a dark brown jacket as his eldest steps into the room, with Niki and Techno in tow.

“What’s gone wrong?” Niki asks softly, stepping over something on the floor to press a hand to Philza’s cheeks, which she removes almost as quickly. Her hands grip his calloused ones and she hums, “his upper body is severely flushed and hot, but his appendages seem to be cooling off.”

“So what does that mean?” Wilbur asks, gently handing some bread to Philza, who happily takes it and downs it with a swig of water. He hadn’t actually eaten in twenty-four hours, so the little bits of bread he was given were like godsends to him.

“Well, it doesn’t seem to be a major regenerative issue… Philza, where is your pain centered?” The woman asked, her wings fluttering as she let her long clawed hands tug her hair into a ponytail.

“My back.” He groans, leaning forward partially. Well, at least he could tell most of his muscles and ligaments had come back since he had an increase in mobility.

“He was shot in the back, wasn’t he?” Wilbur whispers, his eyes nearly darkening at the thought.

“Mhm. Lower back, pointed down towards his stomach.” The pink-haired man confirms, his fingers twitching and tugging on the sleeves of his shirt. Niki nods as she looks around the room and clicks her tongue as she thinks.

“Niki, please. Do _something_.” Philza clutched the fabric of his shirt in his hand and the blonde woman nodded, quickly hiking up her skirt as she ran off. Technoblade grabbed a stool from across the room and pulled it beside the chair Tommy had already brought to the bedside. 

“Breathe, Dad,” Techno murmured, slowly undoing his braided hair.

“It’s kind of hard when my body's regeneration and bodily functions are being denied, Tech,” Philza complains bitterly, biting his lip. 

“I know, but we won’t be able to help you if you aren’t calm.” Techno’s voice is smooth and perfectly monotone.

“I am calm!” Philza snaps and Techno grunts at him, causing the blonde to roll his eyes.

“Okay!” Niki reappears with Wilbur and Tommy behind her. The blonde holds a tray full of various items and Wilbur holds some sort of fruit basket filled to the brim with various things Niki had growing in the garden or the greenhouse. 

“Tommy, hand the regeneration vial, the purple one.” Niki holds a hand out and Tommy hands over the potion.

“Wilbur, Techno, can you move him up on the bed so I can sit behind him. He’ll also need a distraction, food, and water.” Niki’s ordering the two older men around, something Tommy hasn’t seen her do before. Her eyes glow a pale color as she plucks a feather out of the container on the tray and motions for Tommy to take a seat with the tray in one of the chairs. Wilbur supports Philza’s back and Techno slides him up the bed partially and Niki slips in behind him.

“Okay, now what?” Wilbur’s impatience is a virtue here because time is ticking away. Niki’s speech is cut off by another round of vicious coughing from Philza. Niki pops open the cap and uses the black feather to mix it, watching as the feather begins to dissolve in the liquid.

“I’m going to rub the potion directly onto his scar since that’s probably why the healing isn't happening.” Niki explains, “Techno, let him braid your hair, okay? He needs to be doing something that can distract him. Wilbur, be ready to give him food and water when I’m done. Tommy, watch how I do this, okay?”

The three boys nod and Niki gently tugged on the back of Philza’s open back shirt and find the scar. It’s nasty, red, and not properly regenerating. She uses one hand to hold the fabric of his shirt while her eyes glance for an opening in the wound. Luckily, there already is one, so she doesn’t need to puncture the skin herself.

“Tommy,” she says, motioning to his empty hands, “Can you hold his shirt down and hand me a rag?”

Tommy nods and gently grabs the dark green fabric as he hands Niki a pale blue rag. She pauses and watches as Techno takes a seat in front of Philza who hums softly.

“You haven't let me or Wilbur braid your hair since you were sixteen, Techno.” Philza gently runs his hands through the soft pink hair. Techno sighs.

“Today's a special day. Do something intricate.”

Niki took a moment to pause and watch as Philza began to part his hair and then she wets the rag with the tweaked regeneration potion. Tommy watches as she gently dabs the liquid on, never swiping or smearing, just gentle taps to the skin. Philza hisses at the pain and Techno grunts as his hair is slightly pulled. Wilbur gently rubs Philza’s arm as Niki works quickly and efficiently, managing to finish it after only a few seconds. Wilbur is immediately handing food to Philza, who weakly eats it while Niki sets the empty potion bottle to the side and grabs a bandage from Tommy’s tray.

“Good job, Philza.” She murmurs, gently applying the bandage, “I’ll cook the next potion into a soup broth.”

Niki scoots off the bed, her feet tapping the ground as she sighs. Techno stays where he is as Philza finishes up another braid.

“Lay back down Phil.” Techno says softly, turning before Philza can start a new braid, “we can finish this after you’re better.”

Philza nods and Wilbur and Techno scoot him back against the pillows and lay him back partially. He’s still up enough to eat the golden apple Wilbur presents him with and to drink the water the brunette had gotten for him. Technoblade leaves the room, grabbing a ribbon to tie his hair up as he claims he’s going to get firewood. Niki grabs the rest of her supplies as disappears into the rest of the house.

“Toms, can you watch dad while I grab my guitar?” Wilbur says and Tommy nods, sitting on her bed next to Philza as his brunette brother rushes out of his room. Tapping his foot idly, Tommy sighs and rolls a piece of string from his sleeve in his hand.

“Tommy, come here.” Philza holds an arm open and the teenager looks over confusedly.

“Come lay down, asshole.” He smirks and Tommy rolls his eyes.

“Fine, old man.” Tommy grins and lays down next to Philza’s side. The fae wraps his arm and wings around himself and Tommy, keeping them warm and together. Tommy curls into his side, toying with the green string of his necklace as Philza lowly hums a song.

By the time Niki comes back with soup for Philza and Tommy, the two are curled together. Tommy’s catching up on the sleep he’d missed, head snuggled into Philza’s neck while Philza slowly runs his fingers through his hair and smiles at his song through sleepy eyes.

Niki decides to come back later.


	13. Ram Down

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan finally goes into motion. It doesn't go as planned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for stabbing and mind-control!!

The streets of Manburg bustled around as Wilbur guided Tommy by his sleeve. Merchants talked amicably while waving products while musicians played in every corner. In the shadows, thieves were chased by state guards; everything was moving so quickly. Tommy kept a firm grip on Wilbur as well, even if he wasn’t leading the two.

“Make sure we get to the East side of the stage,” Wilbur said softly as they walked.

“Got it.” Tommy grinned, glancing over to the stage to watch when Tubbo, Quackity, and Technoblade took the stage. He yanked Wilbur into a seat and the two fell silent as the audience cheered, they glanced at once another and mock-clapped as Schlatt entered with a canine grin and a double-handed wave and bow.

“My citizens of the great empire of Manburg!” He shouted and Tommy felt sick already, “there has yet to be a fae’s feather brought to us, many counterfeits have been given and justice has been, well, served.” He made a cut-throat motion, “we will continue our search for the fae, despite the last president’s admittance on keeping them safe. I’ll be honest with you all, I think President Soot or whatever you called him was a bit of an idiot.”

The crowd was silent and Schlatt cleared his throat. Schlatt began to speak about something Wilbur somewhat cared to pay attention to, something with guns and fire and armies that made him frown. Tommy didn’t care for it, he stared and watched as Quackity nudged Tubbo over towards Techno who slotted his hand under Tubbo’s collar to keep him still. Even from tens of hundreds of feet away, Tommy could see his hands shaking and the unsealed burns on his skin shine. By the time the speech wrapped up, Techno nodded and began to guide Tubbo off stage. 

The plan was on.

As quick as they could, Wilbur led Tommy to the woods that would bring them back to the cabin where Niki awaited their arrival with potions and other healing things she’d basically forced Philza to stay back with her to make. They could hear the footfalls of two and Tommy quickly grabbed some cloaks from the small moss patch they’d left some supplies in. He tossed one to Wilbur and fumbled with his as Techno rounded the corner with legitimate fear in his eyes.

“Get him and go! Schlatt’s behind.” He said sharply, basically tossing Tubbo to Wilbur. The older boy caught him and immediately yanked him into a hug, thanking whatever gods were above that Tubbo was okay. Tommy threw his own cloak on in the meantime, trying to blink back the stinging tears of relief.

Until; “Chief General.”

Shit.

“President Schlatt.” Technoblade turned and Wilbur threw his hood up, trying to block his face with the dark yellow fabric. With a nod, Tommy threw his own up and quickly rushed over to stand in front of Tubbo and Wilbur and held out a small sword in contrast to the large one Techno rested his hand on.

“What is the meaning of this..? You are one of my highest-ranking officers and you betray me by bringing our secretary back?” He snarled, his yellow eyes glinting, “you think I’m stupid, don’t you?”

“I don’t think you’re stupid, sir. I think you’re a little bit too alcoholically preoccupied and too abusive.” Techno stands his ground, eyes narrowing beneath his mask and Schlatt laughs. His head throws back and he caws to the sky, he steps close to Technoblade, who draws his sword with a grit of his teeth.

“Stay back.”

“Or what?” Schlatt grins and before Techno can respond he lunges and manages to scratch Techno’s wrist. Tommy curses and shoves the two behind him back.

“He’s gonna start mind-controlling him, we have to run!” Tommy shouted, his head pounding as the smell of fire and copper filled his nose. 

“Tubbo? Tubbo come on!” Wilbur yanked back on Tubbo’s arm and pulled him away as Tommy turned back in time to see Techno pull his sword back ready to strike. In a panic, Tommy jumped in front of the others and screamed,

“Techno-Ack!” Tommy winced, his hands gripping the wrists that held the Netherite blade that had been shoved in his stomach. 

“Tommy! T-Tommy! No!” Tubbo screamed, grabbing into Wilbur’s sleeves as he was tugged back into the woods. After a second, Tommy coughed, watching crimson liquid splatter out of his mouth and it warmed his chin as it coated the skin. It didn’t hurt yet, he pondered, he could feel the metal warming against his torn flesh,

“Again!” Schlatt screamed, grinning from ear to ear, but his Piglin puppet didn’t move. He kept his ears pinned towards Tommy, his eyes trained on him as the boy’s blood coated his hands. There was something that made him snap back out of Schlatt’s control, the scent of Tommy’s blood was strange… it was fiery and familiar. The Piglin inside Techno snarled at the scent, it smelled home, why was Tommy’s blood smelling like home? He just got angrier with the confusion. 

Tommy wasn’t from the Nether… was he?

“No,” Techno growled, the Piglin instinct inside of him screamed to kill Schlatt right then and now. It shouted at him, saying someone hurt his family and that person had to pay. He’d hurt his brother, no, someone had _made_ him hurt his brother. With gritted teeth he closed his eyes and instead of ripping the sword out of Tommy’s torso, he let go of it.

“I said again!” Schlatt screeched, huffing as he stomped. He was letting his animalistic nature take over, he was dangerous. Techno needed to get everyone to safety. Crying, Tubbo screamed Tommy’s name over and over. The aforementioned blonde's blue eyes flickered past his attacker's shoulder at his best friend, struggling to force a small grin on his face. With the president's eyes staring into his back, Techno blinked his eyes open and guided his younger brother to the ground, gently setting his back against a nearby tree. The Netherite armor he wore clinked as he held a hand up to Tommy; _don’t move,_ it said without words.

Techno’s mind raced as he pieced together everything he knew, the voice in the back of his mind shouting facts to him. It was common knowledge that everyone in this world had more than one life. Humans had three, shapeshifters had five, the fae had ten, and demons and angels had fifteen. Technoblade knew he only had three left, but it wasn’t his lives that mattered right now. It was Schlatt’s.

The ram wasn’t liked very much as a president, and most of the state guards knew there’d been at least three assassination attempts. But how many had successfully taken a life? He wasn’t sure.

His hand glided towards his crossbow and he took a slow breath. He knew he couldn’t let his Piglin tendencies take over now, Philza had trained him to not act on instinct but calculations. So what could he calculate here?

If he took one of Schlatt’s lives, he had twenty-four hours.

Twenty-four hours to get Quackity and other rebellious guards out of Manburg. Twenty-four hours to get supplies from the city's traitorous king, Eret, and possibly bring Eret and Fundy with him. Twenty-four hours to get everyone coming with him to a safe house he’d made after the festival. Twenty-four hours to collect as many people as he could for a coup, to start some sort of uprising against the government. Twenty-four hours to do so much, he’d have to stay awake for all of those twenty-four hours, not that he ever really slept anyway.

There was a thump as Tubbo ripped himself out of Wilbur's grip and fell onto his knees in a scream-sobbing mess. Hastily, Wilbur stumbled to an upright position and scrambled forward, his body moving stiffly as it shook off the magic from the president's hold. Without wasting a second, Techno spun on his heel and knee in front of his brother. His tusks glinted in the lamplight as he ducked and raised his shield to block Schlatt’s view as he sharply grabbed his pre-loaded crossbow on the right side of his body. Tommy reached out, a soft tug on his sleeve to let him know he was still there and still awake, a soft tug that gave Techno all the information he needed to know.

He would have twenty-four hours…

_Click._

… staring now.

The firework shot off and immediately Techno could feel warmth splatter against his exposed skin. It soaked through his uniform and the smell of burning… everything, filled his senses. He closed his eyes tightly and shook off the feeling in his arms. This was no time to let his instinctive side take over, he had to breathe, and he had to move on. Turning sharply he slipped his crossbow back into its holster and lifted Tommy. Wilbur rushed over and took the blonde from Techno while the Piglin helped Tubbo to his feet by his arm before he shouted,

“Get back to the cabin! Go!”


End file.
